DH Work Anniversary: Meredith Gardner

Meredith, congratulations on celebrating your 10th anniversary at DH! We're thankful for the creativity, guidance, and drive that you continue to bring to the agency every single day.

We interviewed Meredith after 10 years, and here is what she had to say:

Meredith, tell us about a time at DH that you got better. What did you do? What did that unlock for you?

Looking back over 10 years is like revisiting previous seasons of a long-running series. So much has happened — including a few plot twists — and there have been so many lessons learned. In reflecting on the time in full, I feel that working across many different teams has helped shape me into the manager I’ve become. It has been an experience of collecting what I admire and transforming things that didn’t quite work. At the end of the day, I know we’re part of a competitive, recognition-driven, work-forward industry, but for me, people management has risen as the most meaningful and powerful motivator. That’s what DH has unlocked: A passion to inspire and grow creative talent. Yes, I want to create great work but more than that, I want to build up great people and watch them create it instead.

Tell us about a time at DH that someone else made you better? What did you do? How did that impact you personally and professionally?

I’ve shared space and time with too many people during the last 10 years to properly credit all those who have contributed to making me better. With that disclaimer out of the way, it’s important to acknowledge my first DH manager who was the truest example of leading by harnessing the talent around you. With his guidance, I developed updated working definitions for trust, advocacy, autonomy, commitment, and support that I still reference today. He and that first “Top Gun” team set the tone for my time at this agency in a powerful way.

I am also fortunate to have long-standing colleagues by my side at DH — those who know me before, during, and outside of this DH decade. These are the people who keep my head and heart level even on the hardest days amid the toughest challenges. As someone who protects open space for my team to seek me out, unload, or work out problems, it’s been vital for my own professional health to have open space of my own with trusted advocates and “faces of love” just a Teams call away. So, a very quick shout out to Diann Hamilton, Jen Kempes, Katie Wintermantel, and my other half, Jess Corcoran, for who you’ve been to me through all the seasons.

What is your favorite memory at DH?

If I can only pick one, I’m choosing the “era of extra credit work” with Len Dolce and Brittany Hopkins.

I was asked to help with the internal communications for our annual Community Service Day and annual Turkey Bowl with two people I had never met. It became a yearly collaboration I greatly looked forward to with people I grew to know and admire. Len and Brittany care deeply about the community we create as an agency and the community around us. Having that energy as part of my work life has been a gift. We created such strong bonds in the time we spent together, which ended up extending to other charitable and PR efforts over the years. While we haven’t worked together in that way in a while, both know I’m always “standing by” for the next initiative.

If you could go back in time, what advice would you have given yourself as you were just starting out at DH?

To my 2014 self, I’d say, “You’re going to be here for a while, so make the most of it.” Good news is I think I have.