THANK YOU, CREATE PORTAGE COUNTY
ABOUT LEAH KNIGHTS L eah Knights has experience in several industries, as both an owner and employee. Leah is the founder of Leah Knights Creative, where she offers high-level consulting in marketing and brand strategy coupled with creative services, including brand photography and graphic design. Most recently, Leah launched into the influencer marketing industry where she has experienced rapid growth. Leah’s work is primarily in the interior design space, which led her to add interior design consulting to her scope of service. She continues to grow her social media following, which has reached a following of nearly 20k in just eight months. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Leah leveraged a successful eight-year career in healthcare marketing with Ministry Health Care, now Ascension, where she led the marketing strategy for clients with Ascension onsite clinics. Leah earned her bachelor’s degree in strategic communications from the University of Minnesota. Leah considers herself a lifelong learner, seeking to challenge herself in unique ways to enhance her communication, relatability and effectiveness as a leader. She looks forward to applying knowledge and techniques developed in the UW-Stevens Point MBA program to capitalize upon the multifaceted nature of her career. Leah continuously seeks to refine and improve approaches to brand, marketing and strategic development on behalf of the clients she serves. Becoming an MBA candidate at UWSP is a response to her desire to challenge herself as a lifelong learner. Getting back into the classroom and learning from and connecting with other accomplished professionals is highly valuable to her. Leah defines purpose as dynamic and changing, much like our life circumstance, priorities and communities – all which mold our purpose. Currently, Leah feels her purpose is to be responsive to opportunities and challenges that she feels compelled to explore. Leah has a special place in her heart for building community, in Stevens Point and beyond. She has served in several community organizations, namely CREATE Portage County, Saint Michael’s Foundation, Women’s Fund of Portage County, and most recently, as the founding president of Uplift, a national organization whose mission is to transform the lives of women, with special attention to those in crisis.
Greg Wright, Leah Knights, Chris Klesmith, Amanda Elsen, Prof. Lyna Matesi
T he UW-Stevens Point MBA program would like to thank CREATE Portage County for being our first fellowship partner and for being an example of exemplary leadership in our community. CREATE practices data-driven strategies to promote creativity, connection and collaboration in an effort to grow our regional economy through investments in creativity. CREATE’s research into communities that were growing economically and successfully attracting new professionals found that those communities had strong creative identities with infrastructure to support the arts, innovation and entrepreneurship. CREATE piloted its IDEA Center to explore a small-town adaptation to amenities and infrastructure typically found in larger metro areas, and the concept has been highly successful.
CREATE won the statewide 2020 Community and Economic Development Award (CEDA) in the category of Economic Development Initiatives, which recognizes innovative economic development efforts that successfully promote growth and prosperity in Wisconsin communities. Learn more about CREATE’s impact in our community and beyond at createportagecounty.org and the following social channels:
Leah Knights
16
17
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog