Ebony (Grimsley) Vaz is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Above Promotions, a digital marketing and public relations company in the Tampa, FL area. She is also the author of the book titled, “Because You’re Small: Effective Marketing Strategies for Immediate Implementation” and a marketing instructor for Jolt headquartered in Tel Aviv Israel and the Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation accelerator program.
Ebony interweaves her engineering background and government research with her public relations and marketing expertise to help implement science and technology into storytelling for public awareness campaigns, growth strategies, new products, and in-person events.
For over 15 years and 90+ brands, she has worked on campaigns for businesses such as AT&T, AAA, AOL, Cold Stone Creamery and Verizon Wireless to smaller national and international organizations and public-funded organizations, like the University of South Florida. She has brought her depth of knowledge to campaigns and projects with budgets ranging from four to seven figures leading clients to increased revenue and higher returns on investments. She has not only been successful in helping to create effective messaging, engaging fresh stories and increased leads for organizations, but she also positively affects internal teams and processes leaving clients with a healthy and high-performance work environment.
She has been featured on MSNBC.com, Food and Wine, Social Media Today, Food Fanatics, BizBash, AdWeek, PR Daily, Yahoo.com, the Retail Customer Experience, Business 2 Community, NewsOne.com and other publications, panels and hosted large events. She is often invited to speak on emerging technology for marketing and public relations strategies, crisis communication issues with an emphasis on cybersecurity, consumer psychology and research, marketing trends, startup ecosystems, and STEM and diversity. Ebony leads colleagues across the U.S. through online groups focused on crisis communication topics and creative services for the business community. She is a diversity and tech contributing writer for Moguldom.com and has educated those in business around the world with her insights and is well-respected in her field.
While many of her clients are beyond the Tampa Bay area, she continuously gives back to her local community by organizing and volunteering at events for Techstars Tampa Bay Startup Week, Hospitality Hackathon, Ignite Tampa Bay, Bar Camp, and the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists.
Additionally, Ebony is also a Board Advisor for the Bright Young Minds Coalition, Small Business Development Center Expert Consultant and a Venture Deals Kauffman Fellows Academy and Techstars participant and have judged various startup pitch competitions.
