In partnership with the California Governor’s Office and Go Biz, RALLY built LA Rises to tell the stories of recovery for everyday Angelenos, highlighting how community, state and local governments, and the private sector worked together for a revitalized LA. 

In early 2025, the Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed more than 18,000 structures across Los Angeles County, displacing tens of thousands of Angelenos while also shuttering businesses, schools, churches and other community anchors. For a city already reeling post-COVID and in the midst of an acute affordability crisis, the fires threatened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

LA Rises was designed and built to be a content hub that answered many of those challenges (1) by directly linking those who lost homes and business to the resources they needed most; (2) by celebrating the progress being made toward recovery, from debris removal to the issuance of building permits to schools and businesses reopening; and (3) by being a vocal supporter and platform for the burgeoning communities that have emerged or strengthened through disaster. 

As creative director, I oversaw all LA Rises content for the website, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. I led a 13-person content team of designers, video producers, influencer strategists, and digital strategists to execute 6-7 pieces of unique content per week, primarily :60-90s videos.

A key part of this role was community engagement: it was my job to identify stories within survivor communities — businesses reopening, community leaders volunteering, schools in need of resources — and give those stories a hook and a platform.

In planning for the anniversary of the fires in January 2026, I led the team in a rigorous research process through which we interviewed 20+ survivors in impacted communities, and established a Community Voices Committee to co-design the one-year campaign.

Together, we built We Show Up, a campaign to drive support for impacted communities that launched with a Week of Action January 7th-15th, featuring volunteer opportunities, community events and efforts to support local businesses across Altadena, Pasadena, Malibu and the Pacific Palisades.

The Los Angeles fire recovery has, to date, been described as the fastest disaster recovery in modern history, in part because diverse agencies and entities came together to listen to and respond directly to citizen concerns. Critically, what was once a mess of coverage questioning Los Angeles’ ability to recover is showing sparks of positivity and signs of strengthened community action and planning, storytelling that always circles back to hope.