Good work deserves to be understood.

A public service people can use. A mission they want to support. A workplace where they can see a future. Your organization has something meaningful to offer, and helping people understand it is where our work begins.

Sur-Ryl Marketing is a Los Angeles-based marketing agency. Since 2009, we’ve helped public agencies, nonprofits, higher education, and purpose-led brands communicate clearly and inspire action. We bring strategy, storytelling, and creative execution together so your marketing reflects the value of your work and helps people take the next step.

Colleagues point to charts and notes spread across a wooden table during a planning session

The story starts with listening.

Two colleagues smile and listen during a meeting at a shared table

Every organization has a story. Sometimes it’s tucked into everyday work: the way a team solves a problem, a program changes someone’s options, or an employee explains why they stay.

We pay attention to those details. They help us understand what makes your organization distinctive and where it connects with the people you want to reach.

That listening is at the heart of The SOUL Method™, our proprietary approach to brand and marketing strategy. It focuses on the three things that shape whether marketing connects with people: your story, your audience, and your message. We turn what we learn into a clear direction for your brand, then develop the campaigns and experiences that bring it to life.

The goal is practical: help people understand why your work matters to them and how to get involved.

Explore the SOUL Method™

A team you can think out loud with.

You know your organization. We bring an outside perspective and the skills to help move the work forward.

That relationship leaves room for honest conversations and ambitious ideas. We’ll tell you what we recommend and explain why. We’ll listen when your experience points us somewhere else. Together, we’ll make decisions that fit your goals and the people you serve.

Our work brings together brand strategy, content, design, and technology, with support shaped around the assignment. We’re human-led and AI-assisted. A person on our team always finds the story. AI helps us research and produce faster. People review every piece before it reaches you. Whether we’re developing a new brand or supporting ongoing communications, we want you to feel informed and confident about what comes next.

Four colleagues trade ideas around a meeting table

People shape the work.

Marketing asks people for their attention and their trust. That comes with responsibility.

As a minority woman-owned agency, we bring a lived appreciation for whose stories get told and how people are represented. We value different perspectives because they help us ask better questions and recognize what we might otherwise miss.

That care extends to our relationships. We want clients and collaborators to feel comfortable challenging a recommendation and bringing their own experience into the conversation. The work gets stronger when people can participate fully.

What you can expect from us.

Our values show up in how we work with you, from the first conversation to the finished work.

A smiling woman stands and leads a conversation with three colleagues at a conference table

Bold leadership.

We bring a point of view and raise important questions while there’s still time to act on them.

A team talks through ideas around a conference table

Unity through collaboration.

We respect the expertise you bring and work with your team to make decisions and move the work forward.

Colleagues listen closely during a meeting

Deep respect for people.

We take care with the people behind the stories, the audiences receiving them, and everyone contributing to the work.

A small team reviews work together on a laptop

Personal and professional responsibility.

We communicate honestly and follow through on our commitments.

Meet the people behind SM.

Our team is led by Founder and CEO Sequoia Houston, MBA. We bring different disciplines and perspectives to a shared purpose: helping organizations communicate the value of their work.

Get to know the people who bring that purpose to each project.

Sequoia Houston, MBA
Founder and CEO
Her superpower: Seeing the big picture and knowing when to roll up her sleeves.
Sequoia founded Sur-Ryl Marketing in 2009 and leads strategy on every engagement. She’s a StoryBrand Certified Guide with an MBA in Marketing and nearly two decades of brand, employer brand, and integrated marketing experience.
Select clients include: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the ICF Foundation, the City of Stafford, UTDesign at UT Dallas, and the San Fernando Valley Youth Chorus.
Lauren Precker
Marketing Manager
Her superpower: Turning everyday content into meaningful connections.
Lauren brings more than a decade of social strategy, public relations, and digital communications experience with nonprofits and membership organizations. She leads social strategy and editorial calendars. At ASAE, she grew the organization’s social following from 1,000 to 18,000 without paid advertising. She holds a master’s in strategic public relations from George Washington University and is a Certified Association Executive (CAE).
Select clients include: the San Fernando Valley Youth Chorus, the Public Welfare Foundation, the City of Stafford, and ToolHound.
Ken Chege
Marketing Strategist
His superpower: Building systems that keep follow-up running on its own.
Ken leads Virtual SAM, our automation service for local and small businesses. He builds the systems that help clients respond to every lead quickly, from lead capture and follow-up sequences to appointment booking and AI receptionists. He also runs the automation and outreach behind SM’s own business development.
Select clients include: ThinkPoint Cyber and TeeTree Cleaning.
Christian Bradley
Marketing Project Manager
His superpower: Making sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Christian keeps schedules, deliverables, and approvals moving. His project management experience includes major public initiatives, research operations at LRW, and professional development programs at The Broad Center. He holds a master’s in specialized journalism and a bachelor’s in communication from USC Annenberg.
Select clients include: LA28 and the City of Los Angeles.
Alejandro Rodriguez
Marketing Coordinator (Intern)
His superpower: Making the numbers tell a useful story.
Alejandro supports our market research, competitive analysis, and campaign reporting. He brings experience in audience analysis and data visualization and uses Excel, SQL, and Tableau to turn data into clear recommendations. He’s pursuing a master’s in business analytics at the USC Marshall School of Business and holds a bachelor’s in management and business economics from UC Merced.
Select clients include: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA).
Debra Cassa
Creative Director
Her superpower: Turning a good idea into a creative direction people remember.
Debra leads creative direction and brand quality. A School of Visual Arts graduate, she has developed annual reports, promotional materials, infographics, and visual experiences for conferences and trade shows.
Select clients include: USC, UCLA, and Arizona State University.
Dave La Cava
Art Director
His superpower: Making every detail look and feel like it belongs.
Dave brings more than 15 years of art direction and production experience across corporate identity, destination marketing, entertainment, and experiential graphics. His work includes design standards for more than 500 events.
Select clients include: USC, UCLA, and Arizona State University.
Brian Malone
Senior Graphic Designer
His superpower: Finding the design that makes complex information easy to follow.
Brian has been part of our design team since 2024 and moves easily across Adobe, Figma, and Canva. He was lead designer on the ICF Foundation’s annual reports, including the 2024 Year in Review, a Graphic Design USA award winner. He also designs for LAWA’s Elevate employer brand, which earned a Creative Communication Awards Honorable Mention.
Select clients include: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) and the ICF Foundation.
Dexter Salle
Graphic Designer
His superpower: Bringing designs to life on every screen.
Dexter has been part of the SM team since 2018 and brings more than 12 years of graphic and web design experience. He designs social graphics, digital assets, and print materials for client campaigns. He also builds responsive websites and landing pages in WordPress and Elementor.
Select clients include: Forward Vision Marketing, SML, and Buckner Management & Technology.
Yessin Srairi
Graphic Designer
His superpower: Giving ideas movement and a polished finish.
Yessin supports our design and production work across digital and print, including presentation design and motion graphics. Before joining SM, he worked as a product designer, creating user interfaces and landing pages for software platforms. He holds a bachelor’s degree in digital arts and a Google UX design certificate.
Select clients include: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the San Fernando Valley Youth Chorus, and ToolHound.
Nathalia Flores
Graphic Designer (Intern)
Her superpower: Designing brand worlds people want to step into.
Nathalia supports our design work, including logo and brand identity concepts. She has a sharp eye for visual detail and consistency and loves seeing how individual elements come together into one cohesive brand experience. Immersive experiences like escape rooms inspire her to create identities that pull people into a brand’s world. Before joining SM, she designed marketing assets, motion graphics, and social content for a pet-tracking app. She’s pursuing a BFA in graphic design at California State University, Long Beach.
Select clients include: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA).