Alayna is a co-founder of Story Mill Entertainment and serves as Chief Visionary Officer for Story Mill Entertainment and Flat Rock Studio based in Columbus, Georgia. In addition to this role, Alayna is also an actress, writer, and voice-over artist.
Alayna has been a big-picture thinker since childhood, with a drive toward making a positive difference not just in individual lives, but in a broader community- and policy-focused way. She firmly believes that a corporation led by the most intentional of people can provide space and opportunity to its employees to flourish both creatively and economically, and that impact can drive further impact within the community and the broader public. Creative ventures like story-telling, acting, music, art, and the like are the beating heart of society, so why not lean in there? That intersectionality of purposes certainly captured her interest early and has been a driver ever since.
Bitten by the acting and writing bug early, Alayna spent a great deal of her grade school and high school years in the arts. She began acting at age seven, and wrote her first “novel” in third grade. She continued to pursue all forms of artistic expression throughout high school and into college, where she double-majored in Creative Writing and Theater. Following graduation, she worked as a professional actress, director, acting coach, and Program Director in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As Program Director, she coordinated with casting directors, agents, and managers from L.A. and New York City to expose her clients to industry professionals and get them representation.
She also put in time in corporate America, learning the art of marketing and event planning in a Fortune 500 company in Pittsburgh, as well as absorbing various other skills while working with other companies. This became invaluable experience that would come in handy during her time as an Officer’s spouse in the US Army.
Alayna “married into” the Army and, for the next 15 years, served multiple leadership roles in several non-profit organizations within the organization, all of which were dedicated to serving, either in part or wholly, the needs of military families. In this capacity, she planned and executed high-impact events; spearheaded fundraising campaigns; designed, implemented, and managed volunteer programs; and acted as a trusted intermediary between military leadership and spouses. She devoted much of her time while in the Army (and still today as a veteran spouse), to the advocacy, development, and implementation of initiatives to promote gender equality and to support spouses in various military settings.
Now, with her husband retired from the Army, Alayna has been afforded the opportunity, once again, to pursue those driving forces that make her tick: acting, writing, and changing the world for the better. All summed up nicely in Story Mill’s motto: “Stories that matter by people who matter.”
Alayna received her bachelor of arts degrees in Creative Writing and Theater from Geneva College, and has an additional degree in Medical Massage Therapy.
