In January 2013 I, Domenica Giovannini, sat down in a local Wine Bar, La Dolce Vita in my hometown of Petaluma, CA and made my brand official.  What started as a goal for 2013 paired with a nice Prosseco turned into a monumental endeavor that has propelled me into the digital marketing world with my namesake company Domenica Giovannini Creative Marketing. 2013 served as a learning experience and an expansion of expertise. As I prepared to present to the California Public Health Department, Office of Health Equity about the importance of marketing in communities, I suddenly realized my niche. I had many years of experience working in the public sector and had many theories on how to develop communities via effective marketing and communication. This coupled with seven years of working with public and private companies developing social marketing and outreach strategies (regardless of the fact it wasn't called that at the time), I was ready to create a marketing culture shift.

Growing up, I had many diverse interests; I was an artist, an athlete, a born salesperson, a writer, and a scholar (just to name a few identities). The one thing I was certain about was that I was put onto this earth to help others. From age 7 till about age 24 I was committed to the idea of becoming a physician working for undeserved communities in the US and abroad. I started my undergrad education at Santa Rosa Junior College after a slew of heartbreaking rejections from every University of California campus I applied to.  After two years at the JC I started at the University of California Santa Barbara where I was suddenly faced with what I call “silo syndrome.” Students are encouraged to silo themselves into one or two disciplines, which works for some, but not for me. Some of my fondest memories of UCSB came from being a Student Athletic Training intern for UCSB Recreation Sports where I started my journey toward becoming a self-taught graphic designer, photographer, and marketing professional.

After spending a month scrubbing into surgery in Mexico (click here for the whole story), I continued my education at Touro University California where I received a Masters in Public Health Degree. Touro gave me the opportunity to refine my critical thinking and problem solving skills. Most importantly Touro gave me the opportunity to spend 2.5 months in Ethiopia doing advocacy and research in partnership with the Hesperian Foundation out of Berkeley. I realized during my graduate education that I wanted to ignite change at a population level through the mobilization and empowerment of communities. After what now seems like a good fight, I was able to complete my Masters program despite significant push back given my alternative perspective and development of a Health Marketing based theory of programming and outreach as well as the sheer desire for increased accountability. After academic life and during a long period of unemployment, I became incredibly discouraged, but used what little umf I had left to force myself “out there.” Over the following few years I met several local young professionals in Petaluma who boosted my confidence to keep going.

A formative part of my personal and professional self development was the three years I spent working for the Marin City Community Services District (MCCSD) where a visionary general manager hired someone solely dedicated to marketing and communications. I was able to employ her creative thinking to develop a campaign to re-brand Marin City and employ social marketing strategies. While working for MCCSD, I developed and fine tuned my strategies for marketing communities, as well as changing the conversation around local government's role in Public Health. MCCSD's integrated Public Health based efforts towards Collective Action, innovative communications, and innovative marketing have been recognized by many major agencies nationally. MCCSD has also been featured in presentations by the California Department of Public Health - Office of Health Equity, in a national HEAL Cities Webinar, in an American Public Health Associate sponsored webinar, and was recently names a 2015 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize Finalist.

During and after my time in Marin City I worked with several clients including the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and the associated intertribal court system, as well as with various nonprofits in the areas of social marketing, operations, fund development, and strategic planning/internal capacity building. After over two years as DG Creative Marketing my company one person sole proprietorship is now MaberMe which is made up of a team of talented marketing, business operations, entrepreneurs, and public health professionals. I now consider myself to be a social entrepreneur who looks to integrate and develop new technologies and tools geared to help agencies better tell their story. I believe effective leadership development and effective marketing strategies can greatly impact the public health of populations. MaberMe. focuses on the nonprofit, government, and social enterprise sectors providing services in the areas of social marketing and communications. MaberMe believes together we are better and we can all Be The Expert.

After two years as a public servant working for the County of Sonoma getting a crash course in Emergency Communications, I was provided with the opportunity to accept an Executive Leadership role with RAMS, Inc. as their Director of Development & Communications. RAMS is a large mental health nonprofit based in San Francisco that provides full spectrum services including direct therapy services, workforce development, peer counseling, and manages the Street Crisis and Street Overdose teams who work side by side with the SF Fire Department. The organization works hard to provide this diverse set of services to address the many contributors to mental and behavioral health challenges.

As if working full time iisn’t enough, after two years of study, I completed my Doctor of Business Administration Degree at Touro University with Summa Cum Laude honors in June 2024. My dissertation was on Bay Area nonprofit enployee perceptions of internal communications during COVID-19. As a lifelong learning, I am always trying to challenge myself and have new impactful experiences.