The Social Lights Names Stephanie Schafer President

Phot credit: Dan Branovan (left to right: Stephanie Schafer, Emily Pritchard)

The Social Lights, a Minneapolis-based agency that takes a social-first approach to marketing and counts household brands like General Mills, Massage Envy, Kwik Trip, and Cargill among its clients, today announces the promotion of Stephanie Schafer to president and chief growth officer. She was previously chief growth officer and reports to Emily Pritchard, founder and CEO at The Social Lights.

In addition, the agency has hired three senior leadership team members to further its momentum and serve its growing client roster: Meagan Kato as vice president of strategy, Brian Slater as senior director of content, and Kelsey Dahlager as senior director of care and engagement.

“I’m honoured to step into the role of president leading the day-to-day business and talent development for the agency - especially with the bench strength and industry experience that Meagan, Brian, and Kelsey bring to the team,” says Stephanie. “Together, we will continue to lead brands into the future of marketing while developing the talent that will sit in the seat of future CMOs.”

After nearly two decades spent in traditional holding company agencies, Stephanie joined independently-owned The Social Lights in 2021 to help build a different kind of agency. During her tenure at the Agency, she has held roles as managing director, chief operations officer, and chief growth officer.

Industry veteran Meagan Kato brings a strong consumer curiosity, strategic rigor, and innovation to her role of vice president of strategy. Her past experience includes leading consumer insights at Iconoculture and General Mills, as well as leading strategy teams at Periscope and MONO.

Brian Slater comes to The Social Lights as the senior director of content with over 25 years experience in crafting meaningful and award-winning work. He’s worked on national campaigns as both editor and director, and ran his own production company. In addition, Slater honed ideas on the agency side for five years as a creative - ideating and implementing initiatives that not only won awards, but more importantly, moved the needle for clients.

Following more than 10 years leading social media operations at Target, Kelsey Dahlager joins the agency to oversee The Social Lights’ social media management team, elevating a key offering for the agency and setting a new industry standard for what’s next in a core function for all brands engaging in social media.

With the appointment of Stephanie to president, founder and CEO Emily Pritchard will shift her focus from day-to-day agency leadership towards The Social Lights’ long-term vision, strategic investments, and innovation - bringing new products and services to market.

“Over the past three years, we’ve tripled in revenue and in headcount and we’re setting the stage for even more growth in 2024,” adds Emily. “We’ll power that expansion by staying true to what we do best: investing in talent while helping our clients think social-first.”