Our Team
Dustin P. Smith
President & CEO
Smith is the founder of SMITHHOUSE, a strategic communications company. He launched the firm in 2018, the next step in a 20-year career that has encompassed in-house and agency experience across the entertainment, lifestyle, corporate and technology industries. He partners with clients and advises on corporate and consumer PR strategy and campaigns as well as handling events, awards, speaking opportunities, and crisis communication.
Prior to launching SMITHHOUSE, Smith served as Vice President of Communications at the CBS Television Network, creating PR strategy for the Network’s Daytime and Alternative programming.
There, he was the communications lead on several seasons of pop culture phenomenon Big Brother and also launched new competition series TKO with Kevin Hart, Candy Crush with Mario Lopez, global format Hunted, and the true-crime limited series The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey.
Smith also oversaw 1,000 hours of daytime programming each year, including iconic series The Price is Right and The Young and the Restless, as well as the daily live talk show The Talk, which took home Best Host and Best Show Daytime Emmy Awards during his tenure.
Previously, Smith was Vice President of Communications at TLC, part of Discovery Communications, where he led consumer and corporate efforts for the network, executives and programming, as well as managing all awards, events, and speaking opportunities.
Hillary Povar
EVP & Chief Creative Officer
Povar, a seasoned television communications executive, has worked in entertainment publicity, media relations, and talent relations for 15+ years since starting her career at Showtime. During her career, she has launched and contributed to over 60+ original scripted and unscripted series, specials, and events that have covered virtually every major genre in storytelling with some of the biggest and most recognizable personalities in the entertainment industry, including the legendary Norman Lear. She is best known for her unprecedented work as the creative mastermind behind the publicity campaigns and FYC effort for what was originally a quirky, unknown series―Schitt’s Creek―that spectacularly morphed into a television pop culture icon making Emmy Award history.
Joanna Brahim
Executive Vice President
A brand storyteller and established communications executive with widespread knowledge of the media landscape, Brahim has worked on some of the most popular programming – domestically and internationally – across scripted, unscripted and news categories. Most recently Head of PR for Showtime Networks Cable Group, Brahim is known for elevating awareness, increasing audience engagement and protecting brands such as Smithsonian Channel, Pop TV, TLC, CBS and MSNBC. She has extensive experience in crisis communications, program publicity, corporate communications, executive management and talent relations, and is well-versed in multiple areas of the media business including programming, marketing, legal and digital.
Lynn Weiss
Senior Vice President
Weiss is a multi-faceted publicity executive specializing in television publicity for scripted and non-scripted series, television and film award campaigns, executive visibility, talent relations, social media, event production & red carpet, tour publicity and conferences/events. She held previous positions at USA Network and AMC, as well as at her own firm, Weiss Communications. There, clients included WGN America for the John Legend original series “Underground” including panels with actors at historically Black colleges, and “Outsiders;” Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s WaterKeeper Alliance’s “Keep It Clean” annual live comedy benefit; American Pistachio Growers (APG); actor Timothy Omundson for his ABC series “Galavant;” UCLA Extension and author/playwright Janet Langhart Cohen’s award-winning play “Anne & Emmett.” Weiss consulted for Grace PR, working with ABC Television for their 2018 and 2019 Emmy campaigns that included editorial outreach for talent and series in contention, exhibits, grass roots campaigns, outdoor and radio media, along with other award submissions (such as Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild); social media for producer/author Candy Spelling; actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw; Machete Productions; director Richard Shepard; and other clients.
Stephanie Ballabio
COO
Ballabio is a veteran marketing and communications professional with 20+ years of experience working both in-house and on the agency-side. She is responsible for all of SMITHHOUSE’s business operations including marketing, HR, finance and strategy. Prior to joining SMITHHOUSE, Ballabio was responsible for managing new customer acquisition for Intuit’s $150 million Financial Supplies business serving Intuit’s 100 million customers worldwide with TurboTax, QuickBooks and Quicken. Prior to that, she was a Senior Corporate Communications Manager, where she managed the company’s industry analyst and customer relations programs. She started her career at Schwartz Communications (now MSL Group), working with emerging high-tech start-ups. Ballabio has an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Boston University’s College of Communication.
Stephanie Berman Raphael
Vice President
Stephanie Berman (Raphael) is a PR specialist with over 20 years of experience in the entertainment, lifestyle and consumer industries. Prior to joining Smithhouse, Berman served as Vice President of Communications at Decadent PR, where she consulted for the Pop TV network, launching two high profile series; the fifth season of “Schitt’s Creek” and new dramedy “Flack” starring Anna Paquin. She also co-spearheaded the launch of NBCUniversal International Studios “Downton Abbey: The Exhibition in NYC,” garnering more than 200 valuable media placements that totaled more than $5M in earned media value for the opening.
Berman previously consulted for a spectrum of clients including MPRM Communications, Kay Unger New York, Wholesale Halloween Costumes and Blackfeet Films.
Prior to consulting, Berman served as Senior Director of Communications at MTV Networks where she oversaw multi-tiered press campaigns for high priority network projects including the launch of MTV’s scripted programming slate. Berman re-branded MTV’s Original TV movie franchise with strategic launch campaigns tailored to each individual movie genre. Original movies include: “Pedro,” “My Super Psycho Sweet Sixteen” parts one and two, “MADE: The Movie,” “Turn the Beat Around,” “Worst Prom Ever” and “The Truth Below.” Other campaigns include “The 2009 MTV Movie Awards,” scripted series “Awkward,” “Good Vibes,” as well as “World of Jenks,” “I Used To Be Fat” and “The Buried Life” (Seasons 1&2).
Berman spent two years at The Dowd Agency as Director of Accounts before moving to MTV. She managed and oversaw publicity, advertising and Emmy campaigns as well as event planning for several prominent clients. Some of the accounts Berman oversaw include “Meerkat Manor” for Animal Planet, the launch of “The Two Coreys” and “Psychic Kids” on A&E, “Sordid Lives” for “Logo Network”, “Ace Hardware,” “Yahoo!” and the launch of a children’s music brand “BoyintheShade.”
In January 2003, Berman served as press manager at NBC and launched the high-profile unscripted series “I Want to Be a Hilton,” which generated the most public awareness of any summer program on NBC. Berman became the official NBC liaison to the Hilton Family and implemented a comprehensive yearlong media campaign leading up to the summer 2005 premiere. While leading the launch of the Hilton series, Berman continued to run the press campaigns for “Third Watch”, “Law & Order: SVU”, “Last Call with Carson Daly”, “The Restaurant II”, “Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade” and “Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular.” In addition, she launched the first live late-night New Years Eve program for NBC; “New Years Eve with Carson Daly.”
Berman began her career at NBC as a research intern at “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” in January 1998, which soon earned her a place in the prestigious NBC Page Program. As an NBC Page, she covered many assignments throughout the network including working in the office of Mr. Robert C. Wright, President and CEO, of NBC. In March of 1999, Berman earned a position as coordinator for the East Coast Entertainment Publicity Department.
Berman graduated from Washington University in 1997 with a double major in art history and photography. She is originally from Woodbridge, Connecticut and currently resides in Westport, Connecticut with her husband Eric and daughters Emma and Charlotte.
Stephanie Silva Kreps
Vice President
Silva is a bilingual publicity executive with more than a decade of experience in the entertainment and lifestyle industries. At SMITHHOUSE, Silva leads successful and strategic communications campaigns for networks and brands, including YogaWorks Pink, Amazon Freevee, Hoja Nueva, National Geographic, Disney+, Prime Video and more. Prior to joining SMITHHOUSE, Silva previously worked at National Geographic leading publicity campaigns for priority scripted, unscripted, live events and specials.
Frank Marchesini
Lead Strategist
Marchesini is a highly-regarded television public relations executive having most recently served as Vice President, Entertainment Public Relations for Showtime Networks Inc. Over his seventeen-years at Showtime, Marchesini oversaw the consumer and trade publicity campaigns for some of the network’s most acclaimed original series including Dexter, Homeland, Shameless, Billions, The Affair, Nurse Jackie, Masters of Sex, Episodes and City On A Hill. Additionally, he worked on numerous non-scripted and sports titles including The Circus, The Franchise, Inside The NFL, Shut Up & Dribble and Kobe Bryant’s Muse. Prior to that, Marchesini served as Senior Public Relations Manager for the Playboy Entertainment Group, and started his career as an Account Executive for The Lippin Group.
Becca Brando
Director
Brando is a public relations executive with over 15 years of experience leading breakthrough publicity campaigns. Her unique blend of entertainment publicity and award submissions experience has made her an expert at balancing the strategic goals and unrelenting demands of high-profile talent and network clients.
Past clients include: Disney Channel, TNet, Brown Forman, P&G, Paramount Pictures, Netflix, Disney + (TikTok) Sony Music, Universal Music, Konami, Activision, Universal NBC, GSN, DoubleDay Publishing, Hachette Publishing, Lenovo, Capcom, and Actor, Balthazar Getty.
Danielle Matlin
Director
After beginning her career at Sony Pictures Television, Matlin worked at Discovery Inc. for over eight years on the TLC and Discovery Channel publicity teams. For the past several years she turned her attention to TLC’s 90 Day Fiancé franchise, where she solidified the series’ presence in pop culture, evidenced by coverage in major publications, a slew of celebrity fans, several successful spinoff launches, award nominations and consistent mentions on social media and elsewhere. Matlin also drove publicity for other top-rated TLC series, including My 600-lb Life, My Big Fat Fabulous Life, Sister Wives and Who Do You Think You Are? She was passionately involved in the publicity for Discovery’s corporate initiative, Say Yes To The Prom, a program that gives deserving high school students across the country the perfect prom look. Additionally, Matlin provides publicity support to the nonprofit organization, WriteGirl.
Maura Welp
Director
Welp is a driven and creative publicist with over a decade of experience leading press campaigns across many sectors of the entertainment industry, including; scripted and unscripted programming spanning nearly every genre, lifestyle brands, mobile gaming, sports, podcasts and new media. Recent campaign work includes: The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Making the Cut, Kelce, Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory, The Price is Right, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, The Young and the Restless, Primo, Leverage: Redemption, Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge, Big Freedia Means Business, The Groundlings special ‘One Night Only’ benefit for MPTF, and more. Welp held previous positions at Pop TV (formerly the TV Guide Channel), where she worked on multiple seasons of the network crown jewel and critical darling comedy series Schitt’s Creek, and served as a Public Relations and Communications Manager at leading mobile entertainment company Jam City, where she oversaw publicity efforts for Disney and Warner Brothers IP. She started her career as a publicist with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Brian Porreca
PR Manager
Porreca is a writer, storyteller, and creative strategist who has built his portfolio through over a decade of experience across all media. Notably, the majority of his career was as a reporter and producer at The Hollywood Reporter where he led interviews, video series, and features with some of the entertainment industry’s biggest stars. His work has included expansive film, television, events, and culture coverage leading to some of the publication’s top performing stories. Porreca has worked on live streams for awards show telecasts for the Grammys and Golden Globes and has been on the ground at film festivals including Sundance and Cannes. His background in editorial and storytelling has been used in his work for other brands including Prime Video, World of Wonder, HBO Max, and Google.
Johanna Calderon-Dakin
Publicist and Latino Culture Strategist
Calderon-Dakin is a bilingual communications specialist with extensive experience in the entertainment and creative industries. She has developed and executed successful communication strategies for brands and institutions across the globe including Airbnb, American Film Institute, COLCOA French Film Festival, Distro TV, Epic Pictures, Fuse Media, Hola Mexico Film Festival, Latino Film Institute (LALIFF and Youth Cinema Project), NALA Films, OC Fair, Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, Saatchi & Saatchi LA, SABEResPODER, San Sebastian International Film Festival and Vision Films among others. She works closely with clients to help them position themselves as thought-leaders in their industry by designing and implementing valuable strategic communication campaigns while increasing their profile and business capabilities.
Born and raised in Mexico City, she is in a unique position to help her clients develop and expand their business and presence in the ever-growing US Latino and Latin American markets.Her knowledge and understanding of the culture and language has resulted in competitive press in both English and Spanish media.
She has excellent client-relationship skills as well as strong media relationships with top-tier US Latino outlets as well as in Mexico and Spain. She graduated from Boston University majoring in Communications with a minor in Latin American International Relations.
Vince Calvi
Senior Publicist
Calvi is a creative thinker, communications specialist, and media lover. After earning a Master’s Degree in Global Media in Paris, France, Calvi launched his publicity career in the fashion sector as the Director of Communications for French sustainable luxury brand Amédée Paris. With expertise in social media, Calvi has an eye for creative, innovative, thoughtful content focused on community building tailored to the client’s audience. Calvi creates meaningful relationships by collaborating with brands aiming to support minority voices through impactful storytelling.
Jillian Santoro
Junior Publicist
Santoro is a creative and strategic thinker who recently graduated from New York University in May 2022. During her time at NYU, she took interdisciplinary classes focused on media and communications, while simultaneously gaining hands-on experience through several PR and marketing internships. Her most recent internship was with NBCU, where she worked with publicity teams on late night, scripted and unscripted series. Santoro is a pop culture lover, a tv fanatic, and very excited to be starting her career with SMITHHOUSE.
Fabian Arroyo
Assistant Publicist
Arroyo is a self-motivated, budding PR professional who began his career during his internship with SMITHHOUSE where he proved to be a valuable asset to the team, supporting several accounts. As an Assistant Publicist, he continues to support various accounts and multi-tiered PR campaigns. Arroyo is also passionate about giving back and amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities and disadvantaged youth. He considers himself a mega TV and movie fan, which led him to purchase the AMC Stub A-List Membership further driving his interest in the TV and film industry. Arroyo recently graduated from California State University Northridge in May 2022, where he studied marketing and communication studies and currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Matthew Clark
Assistant Publicist
Clark is a passionate, creative storyteller and media lover with experience in production and live entertainment. While completing his degree at California State University, Northridge, Clark began his PR career with an internship at SMITHHOUSE in the fall of 2022, and he’s thrilled to continue his work with the team today.
Stephanie Carrillo Velazco
Assistant Publicist
Carrillo is passionate about storytelling and isn’t afraid to face any challenge thrown her way. She has a deep love for all things music, media, and sports. Carrillo recently graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills in May 2023 with her B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations. While studying, she found her passion for writing, research, and presenting. Before graduating, Carrillo completed an internship with SMITHHOUSE and is excited to continue working with the team.
