In-House Excellence Awards
Grand Jury

JULIE WISNICKI

Head of Creative Studio, Global Marketing
Dexcom

BIO

Julie Wisnicki is a brand and creative leader with more than 20 years of experience building and scaling high-impact marketing and creative organizations across healthcare, biotech, and technology. She is known for helping companies navigate pivotal moments of growth: strengthening brand, storytelling, and creative capability as organizations move from breakthrough innovation to global scale. 

Throughout her career, Julie has been drawn to companies at inflection points, including Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in metabolic health and developer of the first GLP-1 therapies that helped launch today’s metabolic health movement; Illumina, the global leader in DNA sequencing that helped ignite the genomics revolution; and Dexcom, a category-defining innovator in continuous glucose monitoring for diabetes management and glycemic wellness.  

At each stage, she has played a key role in elevating brand strategy, building high-performing teams, and developing the creative infrastructure needed to support rapid growth and market leadership. As Head of Creative Studio at Dexcom, Julie built the company’s first in-house agency, transforming a traditional creative services function into a strategic global partner for marketing and brand. The Creative Studio now supports product launches, brand storytelling, and global marketing initiatives while delivering the speed, consistency, and impact required in today’s competitive healthcare landscape. 

Julie is deeply committed to inclusive leadership and believes the strongest brands are built by diverse teams and cultures where creativity and belonging can thrive. She currently leads the Global and U.S. Pride Employee Resource Group at Dexcom, championing initiatives that foster visibility, community, and inclusion across the organization. 

Q&A with Julie Wisnicki

Provide one word that defines "In-House Excellence" in 2026. 

Integration.

What is one trend in creative operations or in-housing you are watching most closely? 

The integration of AI into creative operations, not to replace creativity or humans, but to dramatically accelerate production, unlock insights, and allow in-house teams to focus more time on strategic and brand-building work. 

In one sentence—what is the single most important element that moves an entry from "Good" to "Grand Prix”?  

The work doesn’t just look great, it demonstrates undeniable business impact while pushing the brand forward in a way only an in-house team could deliver, and no doubt in record-breaking speed. 

What is the #1 mistake teams should avoid when telling their campaign’s "story" in a submission? 

Focusing too much on execution and not clearly articulating the strategic problem, the insight that unlocked the idea, and the measurable impact of the work. 

Why is it critical for in-house agencies to have their own dedicated stage for recognition? 

Because in-house agencies operate at the intersection of brand stewardship, speed, and business impact. Their contributions and heroic efforts deserve recognition for the unique value they bring to modern marketing organizations. 

When you review the “breakthrough insight” behind a campaign, what tells you that a team has uncovered something truly meaningful? 

A true breakthrough insight reframes the problem in a way that feels both surprising and inevitable. When you see the work and think, how did no one see this before? I look for evidence of deep listening, beyond the mining of survey data. Not a demographic observation dressed up as wisdom, but a human truth that reframes everything. If the insight could apply to any brand in any category, it's not an insight, it's a platitude. The best ones are almost uncomfortably specific. 

What lessons from your own leadership journey most influence how you assess excellence? 

Leading creative teams has taught me that excellence doesn’t come from great ideas alone, it comes from teams that can connect strategy, creativity, and operational rigor to deliver work that moves both the brand and the business forward. 

I've seen scrappy, underestimated teams produce stunning work because someone created the conditions for honesty and experimentation. Did the brief give the team permission to go somewhere unexpected? Did the client or internal stakeholder lean in or just sign off? Was there a moment where the team could have played it safe and chose not to? I've also learned to distrust work that looks effortless. The best things I've been a part of were hard and tested us. They required someone to hold the line, have a difficult conversation, or restart something that wasn't working. That effort shows up in the final work in ways that are hard to articulate but unmistakable when you see it. 

Why do awards programs like the In-House Excellence Awards matter to the health and progress of the marketing industry? 

These awards spotlight the evolution of the modern in-house agency and validate the powerful role internal teams now play in shaping brand, culture, and business growth across the industry. 

For years, there was a persistent narrative that the best creative work came from outside, from independent shops or external agencies with famous reputations and big names. In-house teams were seen as execution engines at best, and bureaucratic bottlenecks at worst. Awards programs like this one directly challenge that story. They do something else important too: they create an aspirational benchmark for teams who are often working without external validation, without the peer community that agency life provides, and sometimes without the organizational recognition they deserve. When someone's work gets seen and celebrated here, it affirms something they've known all along, behind their internal company walls...that what they're building matters and moves the needle. And for the industry at large, it's a reminder that proximity to the business can be a creative advantage, not a compromise. The next generation of marketing leaders needs to see that evidence. These awards are how that story gets told. 

Get to know the 2026 In-House Excellence Grand Jurors.