Our
Team
We are women and LGBTQIA+ owned.
And this is an exclusively inclusive operation.
We are strategists, writers, designers, creative directors, video and film directors, editors, photographers, musicians, producers, and influencers.
Co-founding creative directors Sharon Maya Ehrlich and Tracey Arcabasso Smith grew up together in the big agency world with the guidance of powerhouse women and the deep understanding that big ideas are always rooted in brilliant strategy and cultural insight. They eventually went freelance where they teamed up with co-founding partner and executive producer Jenya James Hamidi.
These three women have since formed a creative alliance and empowered sisterhood that soars beyond the realm of business. They’ve pushed each other through wellness retreats and life’s most stubborn obstacles into the arms of life’s greatest gifts. They’ve rescued dogs in Brooklyn and LA, produced a feature length documentary about personal childhood trauma, empowered children in Africa, and even had a few amazing kids of their own.
The We Collective is more than their business, it’s the actualization of the power of alignment, clarity, and intention. The realization that when you build your life and career in congruence with your deepest passions and values, when you stand up and embody things you believe in, like women’s rights, gay rights, and equal rights, when you empower others and our planet with relentless respect, transparency, and inclusivity, you sow the seeds of greatness, inside and out.
Partners Sharon Maya Ehrlich, Tracey Arcabasso Smith, & Jenya James Hamidi
Every team we build is strategically designed around the project at hand with these core collaborators always at the helm and heart.
Sharon Maya Ehrlich
Co-Founding Partner, Executive Creative Director
INTENTION:
To align the actions I take everyday with my heart and soul’s deepest drive.
Sharon is an award-winning creative director and writer that turns brands into lifelong friends and allies by leading them from their deepest essence into consumers hearts, minds, and lives. She’s led multi-million-dollar global brands and multi-platform campaigns at big agencies McCann NY, Y&R, and more. And across industries for brands like Levi’s, Coca-cola, Xbox, Sony, Nikon, Verizon, L’Oreal, Maybelline, Etsy, P&G, Kohl’s, and Weight Watchers. She’s sent stocks soaring, doubled agency revenue, and won pitch after pitch, but believes her biggest wins are in innovating genuine human connection, lasting brand loyalty, and meaningful cultural impact and change. Sharon builds successful businesses and beacons of light. In addition to running The We Collective, she nurtures self-esteem through creativity for her non-profit The Every Kid Is Special Project. And always tries her best to courageously and authentically show up as a good human for her son, wife, community and planet.
Tracey is an award-winning creative director and filmmaker who was most recently recognized as an outstanding leader for effecting change and commitment to impact by Warner Media’s Future-is-Female Awards. She is known for her meaningful creativity and emotional stories across platforms through short and feature films, TV commercials, digital experiences, and interactive storytelling. Tracey has served as a juror for The One Show and Cannes Lions and her creativity is recognized by them and many other award shows across the globe including The Emmy Awards, Webby Awards, ADDY’s, Drum Awards, Creativity, and more. In recent years, her focus has sharpened on exploring the intersection of thoughtful design and impactful storytelling in the service of creating authentic connections. Tracey is director and producer of RELATIVE, her first feature documentary and a deeply personal film that artfully explores the complexity of abuse, violence, and love within a family system. She is a painter, a devout otter-lover, a woods-walker, and a champion of equal rights and change. She lives for making the world a safer place and her beloved wife and two daughters.
Tracey Arcabasso Smith
Co-Founding Partner, Director, Designer
INTENTION:
To create authentic connections and meaningful impact in this lifetime.
Jenya James Hamidi
Co-Founding Partner, Executive Producer
INTENTION:
To create conscious, creative spaces that inspire self-discovery, connection, and individual and collective growth.
Jenya is an award-winning producer and executive producer whose work spans feature films, unscripted series, commercials, interactive, digital, and live experiences. Among other notable accolades, she is an Emmy-nominated documentary showrunner and a two-time Cannes Lions winner. She’s led multi-million-dollar productions all over the world, managed top celebrities, interviewed Obama, and creatively collaborated with a Prince. Her passion lies in leveraging her cross-platform-knowledge to tell meaningful, accessible, artful, stories that affect social and cultural expansion and build impactful businesses. Jenya is also a holotropic breathwork facilitator and co-founder of a collective of multi-disciplinary therapists, facilitators, and practitioners focused on leveraging the best of Eastern and Western traditions and medicines to inspire self-directed healing of mind, body, and spirit. She’s a nature-junkie, animal-lover (and saver), an auntie, a traveler, a get-it-done-er, and adores nothing more than creating community and thriving in it with the people she loves.