Stella is the Founder and Content Strategist at CannaContent, an award-winning, woman-owned, and queer-owned cannabis-centric digital marketing firm established in 2017.
She is an award-winning former journalist and content marketing expert with nearly 20 years of editorial experience. Her specialties are in SEO, content writing and content marketing for SEO, organic search strategy, editorial and content strategy, brand voice development, and thought leadership development.
Stella was named a Top Marketing Maverick Under 40 by NJ Ad Club in recognition for her work marketing cannabis companies in New Jersey. She is a two-time Content Marketing Awards winner, earning “Best Topic Specific Blog” two years in a row from the association in 2023 and 2024. She also develops and delivers workshops and panels on cannabis marketing for trade shows and conferences across the U.S., including Benzinga, the Cannabis Marketing Association, Women Grow, and Lucky Leaf Expo.
Prior to opening CannaContent, Stella was a journalist. She landed her first reporting job at a community newspaper when she was 18. Her reporting earned first-place accolades from the New Jersey Press Association and widespread recognition for local and regional news coverage, particularly during superstorm Sandy. Working with a diverse set of subjects — and learning quickly to write about them on an expert level — set the stage for the ruthless pursuit of quality and thoroughness that shapes her content marketing work today.
With local journalism’s future uncertain, Stella hung up her press credentials and joined the licensing industry as a brand manager on the manufacturing side. In this role, Stella worked closely with multiple internationally recognized brands in consumer electronics, lighting, and home products to build and market brand-compliant product lines. She also played a role in developing private-label brands that are sold in the largest retailers in the U.S.
Stella currently splits her time between New Jersey and Cleveland, after spending several years in California and New York City. Outside of CannaContent, Stella is the founder and CEO of award-winning SEO content writing agency The Stellastra Effect and was the 2023-2024 Content Marketing Editor for the American Marketing Association – San Francisco chapter. When she’s not working, you’ll find Stella thrifting, gardening, and spoiling her cats.
