Portfolio Style Page (not post) Listing with Image Links – Stuck

I’m struggling with a solution for a long-time client for a page that would list image links to all of the pages under a specific parent page. The website is for a personal stylist company that has a list of stylists, each with their own bio page (and featured images assigned) and they are sorted by state by having a ‘stylists – specific state’ page as their parent. Those state parent pages are currently setup to list each stylist in that state including their featured image, the page title and an excerpt from their bio. This is done using the page-list plugin and [pagelist_ext] shortcode. Works wonderfully for what we need there. (example of current state page listing)

What they would like to do is have a page that lists all of the stylists, sorted first by state (with headings) and then alphabetically by name. Ordinarily this is the type of request that I enjoy digging into and finding the perfect solution. Unfortunately so far nothing I’ve tried works in a way that will make it simple for the client to add new stylists without doing extensive code or rearranging in a table to keep this listing of stylists current. I’ve tried using the same ‘page-list’ plugin mentioned above but with different parameters to show stylist images and titles only (no bio info) but the sorting was in columns top to bottom vs. horizontally and the parent state page heading didn’t seem to work properly. Alignment was also difficult to adjust using CSS because that state parent page used a spot but didn’t include a featured image. For now I’ve removed the shortcode for that option but could easily add it back to a hidden page if someone thinks this might be the best solution and could work with some adjustments.

I also tried using a plugin called ‘AutoNav Graphical Navigation and Gallery Plugin’ but could not get the stylists pages to come up at all, only the parent state pages. I could re-add the shortcode for this solution as well to a hidden page and link to it here if someone knows what I might be missing to include the stylist page info there.

In the past we’ve used two different methods. Current method is a US map with links to each state page. urbandarling.com/stylists/ The response to this option hasn’t been great from the stylists themselves so the client is looking to go back to something more along the lines of what the previous stylist listing looked like, which you can view HERE. The drawbacks of the original page was difficulty updating the table as new stylists were added and even more difficult to sort stylists alphabetically by state.

Ideally I would love to find a solution where the client can add a new stylists bio page, select a parent page for the state that stylist is located in, assign a featured image and the rest would be automated as far as that new stylist appearing on both their state specific listing as well as the main stylist listing page. What I’m looking for would work similarly to how portfolio pages work for posts. I think maybe I’m at that point where I’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole trying to force various solutions to work and just need an outside (and more expert) perspective. I’m hoping maybe I’m just missing an obvious solution that someone here in the forum could point me in the direction of. Would appreciate any suggestions SO much.