As assistant vice president for creative and digital marketing at Samford University, Todd leads an award-winning team of creative professionals responsible for supporting university recruitment, advancement, and communication while protecting and promoting the university’s brand. Throughout his career, Todd’s passion for helping organizations effectively communicate their unique ethos in the marketplace has driven him to solve complex business problems through the innovative application of design and technology.

Design
While serving as principal designer for the Woman’s Missionary Union’s flagship magazine, Royal Service, and sharing responsibility for launching Missions Mosaic, Todd taught Freehand and Photoshop classes to colleagues making the switch from conventional to digital design. As a graphic designer at Details Communications, Todd embraced opportunities to specialize in digital design and development, learned to write code, build websites, edit audio and video, and author interactive media resulting in the formation of a new division. While his primary role evolved from designer to developer, love of and commitment to good design remain faithful companions.

Development
As director of Details' New Media Group, Todd conceived, designed, and developed E-Zekiel, a low-cost, user-friendly web content management system. Innovative system design and the early adoption of new technologies with a focus on ease of use and meeting client needs produced rapid growth and the launch of a new company dedicated to the emerging digital market. As vice president of technology and engineering at Axletree Media, Todd drew upon his combined marketing, design, and development expertise to lead the creation of Thrive, an integrated marketing and content delivery platform designed to help clients harness the combined power of the web, social media, email, text messaging, and print on demand.

Marketing
Upon arrival as Samford's director of web services in 2013, Todd cast an ambitious vision for creating an effective, beautiful, standards compliant website. To realize that vision, web services, in collaboration with colleagues across the university, began testing, measuring, and analyzing visitor behavior to systematically renovate Samford’s primary web property to meet the complex needs of a broad variety of university constituents while promoting discovery of and engagement with the award-winning content, photography, and videography created by our accomplished marketing colleagues.

Leadership
In 2016, Todd was promoted to executive director of web and digital marketing where he successfully collaborated with Vice President Betsy Holloway to establish a new position and hire Samford's first social media manager.

In 2020, Todd was asked to provide high-level leadership for Samford's creative services team. While leaving the heavy lifting to this capable group, Todd's decades of experience as a designer allow him to uniquely appreciate and advocate for the work of this talented team.

In 2022, Todd was promoted to assistant vice president for creative and digital marketing in the Division of Advancement and Marketing where he assumed direct leadership of the teams responsible for creative, digital marketing, email support, licensing, photography, and web services. Under the leadership of Vice President Betsy Holloway, Todd collaborates with the assistant vice president for university marketing and public relations to ensure the functional effectiveness of the marketing and communication department.

Degrees and Certifications

• BS in Communications (Concentration in Advertising and Public Relations; Minor in Graphic Design)
• Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
• Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD)
• AMA Professional Certified Marketer (PCM), Digital Marketing Pro (DMP)
• Certified Digital Marketing Professional (CDMP)