Ella Gage
MEDIA PORTFOLIO
PR Client Work
Keller Group Initiatives
Starting as a Strategic Communications Intern and progressing to Assistant Account Manager, I've spent the past five months assisting the Keller Group's CEO, longtime industry pro Lee Keller, with organizing a variety of client campaigns and media outreach initiatives.
Between writing client proposals and SOWs, media tracking daily, preparing coverage reports, writing press releases and media advisories, initiating outreach to lists of 30-100 reporters and editors, orchestrating and designing client social posts, organizing stakeholder meetings, and securing ample pre and post-event broadcast and digital coverage, I'm now confident in my ability to deliver thorough and impactful results along every step of the PR process.
Check out a few of our recent clients and initiatives below!*
*Written by me, reposted from the Keller Group 'Client Stories' blog
Service Learning Campaigns
& Sample Deliverables
Prior to graduating, I had the incredible opportunity to work with a team of Advanced PR classmates on the 2025 campaigns for the 10th anniversary of the Cascadia International Women's Film Festival and Western Washington University's 25th annual Scholars Week. The following deliverables are work samples from each service learning project.
We worked hand-in-hand with executive directors to facilitate pre and post-event coverage and public outreach, maximizing turnouts while galvanizing their respective, ongoing legacies in the local Bellingham community.
Organization Branding Guide
Prior to the festival, we created a branding guide to ensure cohesion in our content. We assessed the brand voice, color palette, font, tone, and guiding values of existing CASCADIA media content to create this guide as a framework.
Festival Daily Email Announcements
My team and I worked with the festival's executive director to create cohesive, branded email announcements on MailChimp. Content included event scheduling and ticketing information for each day of the CASCADIA International Women's Film Festival.
Beyond the Big Weekend: Year-Round Magic at CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival
By Ella Gage
If you thought CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival was just a four-day celebration every spring in Bellingham, Washington, think again. While the in-person festival (held April 24-27 in 2025) and its online encore (streamed May 1-11) are showstoppers in their own right, the magic doesn’t stop there. CASCADIA has an extended itinerary of events, exhibits, workshops, and creative surprises designed to inspire and connect artists and audiences. Whether you’re a filmmaker, an art lover, a poetry nerd, or just someone who appreciates a good story, there’s a CASCADIA event for you. Let’s dive into everything that the organization brings to the table beyond its signature festival. 1. "Women Rising" Art Exhibition: April 5 – May 31, 2025 In collaboration with Allied Arts of Whatcom County, CASCADIA is hosting the annual ‘Women Rising: Expanding Visions / Diverse Perspectives’ exhibition at the Dakota Art Store Gallery in downtown Bellingham. This powerful show features 55 women artists from across the Pacific Northwest, each bringing unique perspectives to themes of gender, place, and transformation. The exhibit opened with a First Friday Art Walk event and served as a vivid lead-up to the film festival itself. It offered audiences a multidisciplinary exhibition, where bold brushstrokes and lens flares complement each other in exploring identity and vision. 2. Script Studio Workshop: April 27, 2025 Held on the final day of the in-person festival, the Script Studio is one of CASCADIA’s most intimate and exciting opportunities for writers. Selected screenwriters are invited to share their scripts in a live table read session with actors, followed by a roundtable critique from industry professionals and fellow creatives. It’s part pitch session, part writer’s circle, and wholly supportive—a chance to hear your words spoken aloud, get constructive feedback, and make meaningful connections in the industry. 3. Honored Guest Screening + Q&A: April 25, 2025 This year, CASCADIA welcomed acclaimed director and producer Yvonne Russo as the honored guest. Her documentary VIVA VERDI!, which chronicles the lives of elderly artists living in a retirement home created by composer Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, screened to an enthusiastic crowd. Following the film, Russo participated in a lively and engaging Q&A and dessert reception where she shared stories from the making of the film and her broader work as a champion for Indigenous voices in cinema. 4. Free Public Panels: April 26, 2025 CASCADIA goes beyond arts and entertainment to create space for education and activism. On Saturday, during the festival, the New Prospect Theatre hosted two standout panels: "Inspiring Real-World Change Through Film" – A discussion with filmmakers and advocates on how storytelling can spark civic action and cultural shifts. "Behind the Camera: Women Directors Share Their Journey" – A candid conversation with women directors about navigating a male-dominated industry. These free events opened the door for community members, students, and fellow creatives to learn, connect, and be inspired. 5. Online Festival: May 1 – 11, 2025 If you missed the in-person festivities or simply want to rewatch a favorite film (or ten), CASCADIA’s online edition offers full access to its 2025 lineup. This includes 27 films from 10 countries — 7 features and 20 shorts — with many stories helmed by emerging and first-time women directors. Online passes let you stream on your own time, from wherever you are, making this an inclusive option for film lovers near and far. 6. "Stills" Poetry Anthology (Coming December 2025) Here’s something special: CASCADIA is teaming up with Ravenna Press to publish Stills, an anthology of poems inspired by the films shown at the 2025 festival. Slated for release in December, this collection will showcase the power of visual storytelling to generate literary reflection. Each poem in Stills will be a response to a particular film, exploring the moods, moments, and meanings captured on screen. If you love film and poetry, this will be a must-read. 7. Community Networking & Parties Throughout the year, CASCADIA hosts filmmaker meetups, director parties, and casual community dinners to foster real-world relationships between creatives and supporters. Whether it’s a cocktail hour after a screening or a storytelling circle around a table, these events are where friendships and collaborations are born. Why It Matters CASCADIA isn’t just a film festival. It’s a community. One rooted in the belief that women’s stories deserve not just space, but celebration. For CASCADIA, llifting up women in film isn’t just something you do once a year — it’s a philosophy put to action, creatively and continuously. Stay up to date with future events, calls for submissions, and tickets by following our socials and subscribing to our email updates!
Festival Blog Posts
We wrote several in-depth blog posts to be published on CASCADIA's website, detailing additional programming, sponsors, profiles, and more. These were intended for event promotion and providing festival attendees with a deeper look inside the festival.
Event PSA [Print]
Using InDesign and Canva, we created print PSA posters to promote the festival and highlight CASCADIA's inherent value in our community as a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and promoting the arts.
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Fundraising eBlasts
We created fundraising eBlasts to send out to CASCADIA's mailing list of 2000+ movie lovers to facilitate donations in honor of the nonprofit's 10-year anniversary.
Event PSA [radio]
This brief radio PSA was written and recorded to spread awareness of CASCADIA's mission as a nonprofit and inform the public of accessible arts programming.
CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival Script - 30 sec. Radio PSA
Since filmmaking’s earliest days, it’s been an overwhelmingly male-dominated venture. Even now, there are nearly 24 male directors for every one female director. CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival is determined to fill that void by amplifying the underrepresented voices of women in film. *Pause* Every year, thousands of female directors, filmmakers, actors, and moviegoers flock to Bellingham, Washington for a four-day celebration of the arts through films that educate, empower, entertain, and inspire. *Visit cascadiafilmfest.org for more information!* Tagline: Stories from women, films for the world
Event Coverage Photography
We captured the magic of CASCADIA's opening night feature film showing and red carpet afterparty through a series of photos and videos (shot on Canon EOS R50) to provide social media content.
Scholar's Week FAQ [web copy]
Created new WWU Scholar's Week Q&A web content after brainstorming commonly asked questions and essential information regarding event participation for both student presenters and general attendees. Information was presented in heirarchal order and written in the Scholar's Week branding voice for cohesion.
Dear Julia Hawkins and editors at the Planet, We’ve all seen harbor seals sprawled along docks, beaches and outcroppings — but these group sunbathing sessions, known as haul-out sites in the realm of marine biology, are more than a cute photo op. In the Salish Sea, many of these seal congregations are now forming closer to human activity, such as marinas and boat docks. While working in the Marine Mammal Ecology Lab, Western Washington University seniors Haley Recob and Maren Duffy joined a faculty-led field study after professors Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez and Dietmar Schwarz observed something peculiar: significant gender differences at seal haul-out sites. The team aimed to understand why these disparities exist and whether they relate to human disturbance. This would interest readers at the Planet because it highlights WWU students conducting original field research on how Salish Sea harbor seals are currently adapting to a changing environment. Using density maps and on-site data, Duffy and Recob tracked seal populations and found male seals showed increasing behavioral habituation—tolerating noise and activity if it’s predictable—while females tend to seek quieter, more remote locations. As one of the student-faculty collaborations participating in WWU Scholars’ Week, further sources for this article include WWU’s Marine Mammal Lab faculty, Dr. Acevedo-Gutierrez (aceveda@wwu.edu) and Dr. Schwarz (Dietmar.Schwarz@wwu.edu). Recob and Duffy will present at the Poster Session on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 at Carver Gym. Scholar’s Week gives students like them the opportunity to share research that would only be shared within the marine biology department otherwise. Some fantastic photo ops for this story could include their Scholar’s Week research poster, photos taken during their fieldwork, and density maps of haul-out sites. This study highlights top-tier Western student research and offers the Planet insight into how harbor seal behavior differs by gender and how seals adapt to changing environments, including human activity and salmon population patterns in the Salish Sea.
Scholar's Week feature pitch
To promote participation in Western Washington University's annual Scholar's Week, we sent feature pitches to editors at various student publications. The goal was to highlight student presenters' work while encouraging student participation in the weeklong event.