Ayden Willstead is a first-year Dean's List student at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois studying communications, economics, marketing, & music. He specializes in photography and design.

Working with independent musician Stella Smyth, Ayden has helped to grow her grassroots fanbase through social media strategy and content creation on TikTok, Instagram, & Youtube—resulting in 1.5M+ streams on Spotify.

Currently, Ayden is serving on the Promotions team for Northwestern's Dillo Day, the largest student-run music festival in the U.S. with 12K+ attendants. In this role, he has designed the festival's 2026 brand guidelines and coordinated both physical & digital marketing campaigns.