Chief Marketing Officer
Witty, gregarious, fun-loving, overwhelmingly energetic and creative, Syieda Penn is a marketing communications hybrid with more than 15 years of solid marketing and communications experience. Syieda joined Sojourners after 6 years as an entrepreneur and natural bridge-builder for her own firm developed in 2005. As an entrepreneur, Syieda worked with more than 50 clients, including nonprofit organizations, government, and small-to-midsized businesses.
Prior to company ownership, Syieda worked for Arnold Worldwide, one the largest creative ad agencies in the U.S., on the McDonald’s account where she developed print, online, broadcast TV, radio, and point-of-purchase advertising vignettes for the McDonalds’s brand in the Washington, D.C.-metro and Eastern Shore regions; was an integral part of the creative development of the first overseas tabloid-sized weekly newspaper supplement for Stars and Stripes; created the first breakfast seminar for Federal Times newspaper and the first “Get Out the Vote” campaign targeting 18-34 minority voters in partnership with NAACP, National Urban League, and Rock the Vote during the 2000 election campaign year for Politicallyblack.com. Syieda started her career in the radio industry as an advertising sales manager working with Radio One, Inc.
With experience in developing marketing strategies, business systems, and community outreach in a variety of venues, including environmental stewardship, HIV/AIDS awareness, domestic violence, and political advocacy, Syieda brings a wealth of social justice, marketing and branding, and business strategy expertise to Sojourners. In addition, Syieda is a certified fundraising executive who has raised nearly $5 million in annual revenue streams for nonprofit organizations and small-business clients as a marketing professional. She has secured media placements with CNN with Soledad O’Brien, the New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
Raised in the tradition of Latter Day Saints, Syieda’s faith is rooted in sincere and authentic love, adoration and humility, and she believes strongly in the amazing power of prayer. Syieda, raised in the military, traveled the country as a toddler until her family settled in Charleston, South Carolina. Her senior year in high school they moved to Northern Virginia where she graduated high school and then returned to South Carolina to attend South Carolina State University. Syieda is a proud Bulldog alum.
Syieda Penn resides in Washington, D.C., and is a member of Emory Fellowship United Methodist Church led by Rev. Dr. Joseph W. Daniels Jr.