The Way Up Creative Group

Tracee T. Holloway has spent her career bringing together two sides of herself that were never as separate as they might have appeared: the systems thinker who studied technology and the creative communicator drawn to storytelling, performance and human connection.

A magna cum laude graduate of Virginia Union University, Tracee earned her degree in Management Information Systems with a minor in Speech and Drama. That combination - business and technology on one side, creativity and communication on the other - has shaped more than two decades of work helping organizations turn ideas into strategies, stories into experiences and disconnected marketing efforts into something people can understand, trust and act on.

Today, Tracee is the CEO and Creative Director of The Way Up Creative Group, an integrated marketing communications, public relations and events agency based in Mansfield, Texas. She works with businesses, nonprofits, educational organizations, community leaders and personal brands to clarify what they want to say, identify who needs to hear it and determine how the message should move across channels.

Her work may begin with a brand story, a business objective, a new initiative or an experience that has not yet been fully imagined. From there, Tracee helps connect the pieces: positioning, campaign messaging, public relations, social media, content, email, websites, partnerships, community engagement and live events. She is often the person responsible for seeing the full picture, creating order around many moving parts and keeping executives, creatives, vendors, production teams and other stakeholders moving toward the same goal.

That ability has allowed her to lead and support complex, high-visibility initiatives in environments where the strategy must be clear, the communication must remain consistent and the execution must adapt in real time.

Since expanding into large-scale event production, Tracee has managed or supported conferences, concerts, galas, corporate programs and community celebrations for organizations including the University of Texas at Arlington, the National Kidney Foundation, the National Association of Minority Contractors, Ziglar, the Golden Shovel Awards and The Shops at RedBird. Whether she is shaping the audience experience, coordinating speakers and talent, directing vendors or managing production logistics, she brings a marketer's understanding of the brand into the operational details of the event.

Her work extends beyond individual campaigns and productions. Tracee helps organizations build communication ecosystems that are more intentional and connected. She has developed brands and websites, directed content and social media programs, led media outreach, supported podcasts and educational platforms, planned community-engagement campaigns and helped clients introduce new services, programs and experiences to their audiences.

She has also built a reputation for translating information that may feel technical, complicated or overwhelming into language and experiences that feel clear and useful. That instinct has become especially important as artificial intelligence changes how people work, communicate and make decisions.

Tracee is an AI practitioner, educator and consultant who has incorporated AI-assisted tools into her agency's marketing, communications and operational work. She teaches business owners, professionals and students how to use tools such as ChatGPT more strategically, including presenting a prompt-engineering workshop at STEMCON and discussing practical AI adoption through platforms such as Hello, Mansfield and BizTV.

Her interest in AI is not limited to producing content faster. She explores how AI can support stronger workflows, better access to information, more personalized communication and new ways for people to create and solve problems. She is also deeply interested in the responsibility that comes with introducing emerging technology to broader audiences: making it understandable without oversimplifying it, useful without overstating it and innovative without removing the human thinking that gives the work meaning.

That balance reflects how Tracee approaches marketing as a whole.

She believes people should not have to work unnecessarily hard to understand why a brand, product, program or idea matters. Effective marketing connects business goals with real audience needs. It brings creative thinking, technology, communication and execution together in a way that feels cohesive rather than fragmented. And it does more than generate attention - it creates a clearer path toward engagement, trust and action.

Tracee brings that philosophy into her work as a strategist, creative director, executive producer, publicist and community connector. She has been named Alignable's Mansfield Local Business Person of the Year three times - in 2022, 2024 and 2025. Her event work has also earned recognition in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's DFW Favorites Awards: a 2026 Silver Award in the Event Planner category.

She also serves in community and professional leadership roles, including her work as an Alignable Ambassador and host of the Alliance of North Texas Power Hour, where she brings business owners together for substantive conversation, relationship-building and shared growth. Her broader leadership has included service with nonprofit boards and professional communications organizations, reflecting a commitment to using visibility and connection as tools for more than business alone.

Across every part of her career, the common thread has remained the same: Tracee sees connections.

She sees how a message relates to the experience around it, how creative ideas depend on operational clarity, how technology can expand what people are able to do and how strong marketing can bring different audiences, teams and objectives into alignment.

Her work lives at that intersection - where strategy meets creativity, technology meets people and a good idea becomes something others can finally see, understand and experience.