Tina has been leading her own design firm since 1976 and is the community face of Uptown Studios. She brings a wealth of experience to every project, offering a big picture perspective to each campaign. Tina’s work with non-profits has made her a pillar within the Sacramento community, regularly attending events, workshops and performing in-person outreach. It was her vision that created Uptown Studios, and made it what it is today. On the day to day, Tina is living her best life out in the world, capitalizing on her charisma and extroverted personality to bring in clients, enhance visions, and add her own unique spark to Uptown’s name and brand.

Jade’s journey has come full circle – and they couldn’t be more excited about it.

After three successful business exits (most recently in March 2025) and years building companies in software and services, Jade is back where some of their earliest professional roots took hold: Uptown Studios. Now serving as Interim Director of Operations, they’re bringing everything they’ve learned about sustainable scaling, operational excellence, and ethical business methodologies to help Uptown Studios scale.

It’s a homecoming that makes perfect sense. The same strategic frameworks that helped them scale multiple ventures to successful exits are now being applied to a company they deeply believe in. Their approach combines hard-won operational expertise with the people-first philosophy they teach through the High Performance Rebel program – proving that business growth and team sustainability aren’t mutually exclusive.

Beyond Uptown Studios, Jade continues coaching business owners through sustainable scaling, serves on the Queer Business Alliance board, and stays deeply involved in the local business community. They’re a Certified Pickleball Coach who’s just as likely to take a business call on a hike as from a desk, and they believe the best way ahead is all boats rising together.

Before coming on as a department director for Uptown, Jaime worked within digital web spaces for almost 15 years. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Arizona State University in 2008, she worked as a copyeditor for major publications, a web content creator, a lead staff writer, and a communications specialist for a number of reputable companies throughout California and beyond. More recently, she’s focused on UX Design; specifically site mapping, information architecture, and UX writing for websites, receiving her Google Certification in UX in 2021. 

On the day-to-day, she creates sitemaps, oversees project nuances, development teams, budgets, production schedules, incoming workflow, and client relations. When she’s not writing a way-to-thorough email to avoid a meeting, she teaches stand up comedy classes at the Sacramento Comedy Spot, as she’s been performing stand up comedy for over a decade.

Gilda (Jill-dah), Uptown’s video and animation director since 2022, loves a good story and design challenge. She accumulated and refined her skills in school (California Institute of the Arts, CSUS, San Francisco State, School of Motion), in studio and freelance businesses and through countless personal explorations. She manages client projects from concept to completion and directs and participates in script writing and editing, illustration, storyboarding, 2D animation, motion graphics, video producing and editing and sound design. Her daily toolbox includes Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premier Pro, Audition and InDesign. She is continually in search of fresh narrative strategies and technical information and she thrives on collaboration with other design, video and animation professionals. Gilda works directly with clients to craft evocative stories with a sharp eye and genuine appreciation for the art. When she’s not on location with a film crew or in a dark room designing and making characters move, she enjoys going to art museums, film and music festivals, hiking, dancing and adventurizing with her family.

After coming onto the Uptown team in 2020, April had been a full stack web developer for over 20 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Web Development as well as an Associate degree in Computer Information Science. Her endless technical skills include (but are not limited to): PHP, JavaScript, React, HTML5, CSS, SASS, Apache, MySQL, Bootstrap, Responsive Web Design, Search Engine Optimization, Cross-Browser Compatibility and more. She’s well versed on both the WordPress and Drupal content management systems. In addition to being an incredibly fast and efficient developer, she’s also a talented graphic and UI designer. With strong skills in Illustrator, PhotoShop, InDesign and XD. April is a unicorn of a developer in that she can create design prototypes and then develop them – making the transition from design to development incredibly smooth.

On the day to day, April is our go-to team member for new website builds, complicated software integrations, databases as well as creative design, prototyping and wireframing. She’s a self proclaimed workaholic, completing projects at an unreal pace. On the rare occasion she is not coding, April can be found hanging with her three tiny pups, enjoying a nice glass of wine, or spending mornings at the gym.

In 2021 Hope joined the Uptown team after five years of marketing experience in various industries. While spending time honing a bucket of versatile marketing skills, Hope received her Certification in Google Ads and Meta Ads in 2022, all while continuously refining her expertise in copywriting and email marketing. On the day-to-day, Hope is the go-to expert for crafting and editing captivating copy, managing organic social media strategies, creating and analyzing Google Ads, and generally adding value to any project she touches. She’s a whiz at developing digital ad strategies that make a brand stand out. When she’s not locked into Google Ad Manager, Hope bakes amazing, elaborate cakes (even running her own online business for it), hangs out with her pup, Bogey, and is currently planning her wedding!