The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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Lists

The Drum's 50 under 30 US

The Drum’s 50 under 30 US is our annual celebration of exceptional young women in the creative business. To create this list, we first asked our readers to nominate the individuals they most admired and provide testimonials explaining why they deserved this recognition. Then a panel of industry luminaries pored over the submissions to curate our final 50. Now we present to you the next generation of creative leaders.

Aisha Hakim
Venable Bell & Partners
Aisha Hakim
art director
Aisha Hakim joined San Francisco-based agency Venables Bell & Partners in 2015 and has worked on brands such as Reebok and Audi, as well as spearheaded the agency's social media channels. Hakim began her advertising career at Innocean USA, where her first TV assignment led to client Hyundai's 2014 Super Bowl spot, ‘Nice’. Recognized as an outstanding emerging talent in the industry, she was recently named one of The One Club and 3% Movement's Next Creative Leaders. In her free time, Hakim and her husband pursue their own creative venture – designing and crafting custom furniture under the name Frame+Panel. Their work has been featured in world-famous art shows like The Festival of the Arts.
Alesia Snell
aspireTV
Alesia Snell
consumer marketing manager
Alesia Snell is an Atlanta native with over five years of marketing experience under her belt working for companies such as Comcast NBC Universal, ABC Studios, and AT&T. She’s amassed a portfolio of campaigns across marketing disciplines including B2B, B2C, affiliate marketing, product positioning, media buying, and brand strategy. As the consumer marketing manager at AspireTV, she leads the network’s marketing strategy, helping the company establish itself as a lifestyle destination for the black community through integrated digital content, grassroots activations, strategic partnerships, and multi-channel promotions. Her passion for inclusion is also reflected in her active membership of progressive organizations such as ColorComm and Women In Cable Telecommunications (WITC).
Allie Fisher
Godfrey Dadich Partners
Allie Fisher
partner and creative director
Award-winning designer and creative director Allie Fisher leads the design team at Godfrey Dadich Partners, where she generates visual narratives and functional design systems for brands such as Nike, Google, National Geographic, IBM and the Obama Foundation. Before joining GDP, Fisher was design director at Wired, where she led a team that produced art direction and design for the publication’s magazine, website, and live events. As part of this, she was instrumental in pioneering Wired on Apple News, which was showcased on stage at Apple’s WWDC. Her work has garnered design awards including the Art Director’s Club cube for editorial design. Prior to Wired, Fisher worked at Condé Nast’s Editorial Development Group, where she partnered with brands such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and GQ to launch their digital editions and publish special projects.
Allie Kainz
TracyLocke
Allie Kainz
senior art director
After joining agency TracyLocke as an intern straight from Texas Tech, Allie Kainz began working as an art director on the agency’s T-Mobile account, and was promoted to senior art director just two years later. She has worked on campaigns including ‘Are You With Us’, T-Mobile’s military appreciation campaign, and its ‘Local market lifestyle photography’ campaign, as well as the Silver ADDY-winning Times Square OOH design. Kainz has also worked on numerous new pitches for the agency. During her first year, Kainz received the Unlocke award, and has since becomed a charter member of Tracylocke's ‘Change Agents’ group, formed to celebrate and encourage female creative growth and leadership. More recently, she took on the role of co-chair of the agency's summer internship program, a scheme which allows staff to pay it forward to help cultivate TracyLocke's future employees.
Allison Murphy
TBWA Media Arts Lab
Allison Murphy
copywriter
Allison Murphy is a copywriter at TBWA\Media Arts Lab in in Los Angeles. Stints in Dallas at The Richards Group, and Portland with Wieden + Kennedy led her to work with brands like Ram Trucks and Secret Deodorant, she’s made a name for herself working on the ‘Shot on the iPhone’ campaign’. Murphy helped launch the Apple Instagram account, which saw her plaster giant selfies of people on billboards all over the world. Having travelled across the country since graduating from VCU Brandcenter in 2015, Murphy measures her career success in the quality of street food – from tacos in Texas to decent coffee in Oregon.
Amera Lulu
Ogilvy
Amera Lulu
art director
Amera Lulu is a designer and art director who is passionate about using design to solve social issues, and bring awareness to subjects like injustice, violence and discrimination. Lulu says she aims to break down cultural and societal values that threaten to hold back Muslim women, and that she wants to use design as a vehicle to unite people and ideas around sustainability and diversity. She was awarded the City University of New York (CUNY) Service Corps Spirit award to represent New York City College of Technology for her work as a graphic design intern at the Informal Childcare project, a program by CUNY and the City of New York that provides a broad range of programs and services supporting best practices for children and families. By day, Lulu is an art director at Ogilvy, working on clients such as Samsung, Ikea and Lenovo. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the top 100 Remarkable People at Ogilvy USA. Previously, she’s held gigs at R/GA and Havas Tonic.
Anika Maini
M&C Saatchi Performance
Anika Maini
associate director
Anika Maini is an associate director at M&C Saatchi Performance. Maini has helped to establish three global offices and managed diverse teams of media experts across two continents. She now manages the agency’s media team, executing mobile campaigns for clients including industry leaders like Audible, FuboTV, and DraftKings. Maini has led M&C’s efforts to tackle ad fraud, creating strategies based on monitoring suspicious activities in real-time for app-install campaigns. She also works with clients on internal attribution setting strategies. Maini's career began as an intern at ad-network Mojiva and she has also previously held roles at Mojiva and Havas in London, where she oversaw planning and execution of direct response initiatives for AXA, Paypal, Pernod Ricard and Kia. She joined M&C Saatchi Mobile Performance in 2014 as the first hire at the agency’s Singapore office. After a period of time working overseas, throughout which she supported newly established agency offices in Bangalore and Delhi, she relocated to New York.
Becca Abellera
Colle McVoy
Becca Abellera
copywriter
Becca Abellera is a copywriter at the Minneapolis-based agency Colle McVoy. After studying poetry, creative writing and communications at the University of Iowa she spent time bumming around Chicago teaching sailing, project managing, and cutting movies in exchange for room and board. It was after a year in Chicago that she moved to Minneapolis to attend portfolio school at Brainco where she wrote loads of headlines and read thousands of annuals. After being scooped up as an intern by Colle McVoy, Abellera sought out as many challenges and opportunities as possible and quickly made her way to a copywriter position, touching business from clients like Target, 3M, Cub Cadet, Jackson Hole, and Winfield United along the way.
Becky Brinkerhoff
Arnold Worldwide
Becky Brinkerhoff
copywriter
Becky Brinkerhoff is a copywriter at Arnold Worldwide, based in Boston. Primarily working on the Progressive account, Brinkerhoff started out at Hill Holliday. After landing a gig live-tweeting the 3% Conference, Brinkerhoff joined the 3% Movement’s team part-time as its social media manager and the lead editor of Voices, the organization’s online magazine. Her work for 3% has seen Brinkerhoff rally women around the country to call out sexist Super Bowl advertising and handle much of the organization’s communications, including interview series Don’t Interrupt. Beyond her official workload, she guides juniors through salary negotiations and mentors interns at Arnold.
Brynna Aylward
Energy BBDO
Brynna Aylward
associate creative director
Brynna Aylward’s copywriting doesn’t just communicate ideas and win awards – it helps to save lives. Her work on the ‘Prescribed to Death’ campaign brought audiences face-to-face with the opioid crisis, sparked conversation in major news outlets and received bipartisan support amid a divided political climate. She's received gold Lions and gold Pencils while spearheading non-profit side projects that promote gender equality, one of which was screened at D&AD and Cannes. At Energy BBDO, Aylward works for brands like Ziploc and Off! to find ways to make their communications more meaningful and effective. Prior to joining Energy BBDO, Aylward was associate creative director at BBDO Mexico, and senior copywriter at Leo Burnett.
Candice Drakeford
Anomaly
Candice Drakeford
art director
Candice Drakeford is an art director at Anomaly who works on brands such as Carnival, New York Life, and Beautyrest. Previously, she worked at Droga5’s New York office on clients like Chase, Blue Apron and MailChimp, and The Martin Agency in Richmond. She helped out creatives as a 2017 MAIP mentor, and was a speaker at New York City College of Technology's Meet the Pros series. During her time studying at The Creative Circus, she interned for The Dalton Agency and won a Gold Young Guns International Award for TV/Cinema, as well as a student ADDYs Award for a TV campaign. Outside of work, Drakeford is a recreational scuba diver and serves as a petty officer first class in the US Coast Guard Reserves.
Chavonne Hodges
Wunderman
Chavonne Hodges
global learning manager
Chavonne Hodges, a global learning manager at Wunderman and startup founder, has worked in advertising and fitness for eight years. Her career started at The One Club, where she helped multiple young and diverse creatives get ahead by expanding its Education Festival during NYC Creative Week and Creative Boot Camp in cities like London, Chicago, New York and Atlanta. She then worked at McCann Worldgroup for four years as a global learning associate. In 2016, Hodges started fitness company GrillzandGranola, which curates and creates wellness and fitness experiences. With branded fitness class TrapAerobics, her aim is to ‘reinvent exercise’ using creativity and trap music. The class has captured the attention of the media, as well as companies like Facebook, Tumblr and Droga5. In another project, Hodges set out to improve diversity in fitness stock images, so formed ClickCliqueNYC in order to create more diverse stock imagery. This landed her a modeling job for Target's C9 Champion ‘A New Kind of Strong’ campaign. Earlier this year she launched Zen Day, a wellness conference for women of color which was sponsored by Under Armour Women, Nokia and Herschel.
Chelsea Smith
Campbell Ewald
Chelsea Smith
associate marketing and new business specialist
Chelsea Dionne Smith is an associate marketing and new business specialist at Campbell Ewald. Starting at the agency via 4A's Multicultural Advertising Intern Program, Smith joined the agency while completing her senior year at university remotely. Her project management, prospecting, pitch-support and cross-office coordination skills have been influential to five new business wins for the agency since her arrival. Alongside her traditional roles and responsibilities, Smith is committed to diversity and inclusion efforts. In addition to developing and facilitating ‘A Seat at the Table,’ an agency discussion about the importance of creating diverse and inclusive spaces for young professionals, Smith has also executed efforts aligned with LGBTQ+, immigration and youth outreach programs on behalf of Campbell Ewald.
Dahcia Lyons-Bastien
Shade
Dahcia Lyons-Bastien
chief marketing officer
Dahcia Lyons-Bastien is a writer and the chief marketing officer of Boogie Brands, a holding company that builds products and services to help marketers stay relevant in today's culture. Lyons-Bastien leads marketing and strategy for Boogie Brands' flagship brands, Boogie’s marketing consultancy, and Shade, an influencer management agency for black and brown creators. When she's not leading her team to successful project planning and execution, she speaks at events and on college campuses about social media marketing and starting a career in the marketing industry.
Dani Meluski-Jimenez
Grow
Dani Meluski-Jimenez
art director
Dani Meluski-Jimenez is an art director whose resume includes Deutsch, Rokkan, Hill Holliday, Erwin Penland and PP+K. She has led national integrated campaigns for the likes of Target, Google, JetBlue, Coca-Cola, and Trulia. In the past couple of years, she helped launch two national campaigns for Target, including the brand's first totally kid-created campaign, ‘To School & Beyond.’ This year, Meluski-Jimenez joined digital agency Grow as art director. In the spring, she helped launch a National Small Business Week initiative of Google's ‘#SmallThanks’ campaign, which earned the project a highlight on the homepage of the Google Blog. A passionate supporter of female creatives, Meluski-Jimenez has been mentoring young women since the beginning of her advertising career. Through her involvement with the Marcus Graham Project, MAIP and other local initiatives, Meluski-Jimenez has played an active role in helping cultivate the next generation of industry thought leaders. She hopes to continue giving her time to advance that cause.
Debbie Pan
Droga5
Debbie Pan
art director
Debbie Pan is an art director at Droga5 in New York City. She joined the agency as an intern, and quickly moved up the ranks to a full-time art director before graduating from college at ArtCenter College of Design. In her two years at Droga5, she's launched Sprint's ‘Works For Me’ rebrand and was a core part of the team that kicked off Sprint's second year of Droga5 work with a Super Bowl commercial. Last November, she helped turn the New Museum inside out for its 40th anniversary by live streaming more than 200 pieces of art inside and outside the museum in different media forms across New York City. Most recently, she and the Covergirl team launched Covergirl's largest product campaign yet for TruBlend Matte Made, a 40-shade foundation, celebrating inclusive beauty. Besides dealing with phone plans and makeup products at Droga5, Debbie enjoys creating and collaborating with her friends on small side projects dealing with fashion, photography and film. She also mentors young creatives through the One Club Creative Boot Camp and portfolio review sessions. She begins teaching a second-year advertising class at the School of Visual Arts this fall.
Delilah Kim
BBDO Worldwide
Delilah Kim
art director
Delilah Kim is one half of a Russian-Korean-American creative partnership with Vera Keiter currently working at BBDO Worldwide. She’s worked for brands including Dunkin' Donuts, Pedigree, Band-Aid, J&J, AT&T and Dove Chocolate, and been featured across the industry press for her creative output. An alumnus of the School of Visual Arts, Kim is set to begin teaching a master’s level advertising class at City College of New York this year.
Dina Young
Huge
Dina Young
creative director
As the only female creative director at full-service agency Huge, Dina Young has produced work for Alfa Romeo, Quicken Loans and Capri Sun, as well as working on new business pitches. She joined the agency as a senior copywriter from SapietNitro, following stints at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Campbell Eward. Since joining Huge, Young has ran several award-winning projects for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and then pitched and won the agency's very first Super Bowl commercial for Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans. Young also participated in Detroit's 3% mini-conference, which aims to shed light on the lack of female creative directors within the industry. As well as her agency work, Young teaches copywriting at Detroit's College for Creative Studies.
Emely Perez
J. Walter Thompson
Emely Perez
senior designer
Emely Perez is a designer and illustrator with a broad portfolio of work. After landing a Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP) internship at JWT NY in 2011, she is now a senior designer at the agency. She has worked on global brands, including Smirnoff, Puma, Walmart, Rolex and Campari Group. Recently, she, along with her team, created the innovative ‘Walmart Wrapping Bag’ – a shopping bag that converts into wrapping paper – as well as print work for Grand Marnier's new ‘Live Grand’ campaign. As for personal projects, Perez created a new identity for the 4A's MAIP, launched on the program's 40th anniversary. Last year, she launched a Caribbean restaurant brand called Bull Bay in Wilmington, Delaware designing everything from the brand identity and interiors to marketing materials. Perez was recently honored as a Shots Rising Star and made the 4A's list of the 100 People Who Make Advertising Great. She has won an ANDY, two Clios, a London International Award, and a few Cannes Lions, but what she is most passionate about is not the recognition, but the interns. She's the designated mentor to her team's junior designers and interns, and just concluded her third summer as a MAIP Coach.
Erika Zorzi
Mathery Studio
Erika Zorzi
director
Erika Zorzi is one half of Italian directing duo Mathery. With a background in design and photography, Zorzi currently works independently in Brooklyn as a director of films and commercials. Her work turns everyday life upside-down, combining humor and breathtaking art direction. Zorzi excels in creating abstract universes and her talents cross all mediums and disciplines from film to photography to writing, as well as space and object design. Her work has been featured throughout the design press and in books by Taschen and Gestalten. Her interactive exhibition, ‘Pastello – Draw Act’ was shown in museums across the world and won the 2014 Interior Design Excellence Award. Most recently, Zorzi wrote and directed the opening film, and designed the overarching campaign for the prestigious OFFF festival. She alternates between personal independent projects and directing commercial advertisements for brands such as Google and Nestlé.
Erin Hauswirth
Giant Spoon
Erin Hauswirth
strategy director
Erin Hauswirth is a strategy director at full-service agency Giant Spoon. Hauswirth most recently developed the strategy and experiential execution for the launch of female healthcare brand Lola’s line of sex products, and previously helped transform Spotify into a cultural force with the development of a Stranger Things character playlist generator. Before joining Giant Spoon, Hauswirth was a director at iHeartMedia's Soundboard, where she developed custom creative marketing ideas for blue-chip brands. Earlier, as a senior manager at OMD's Ignition Factory, Hauswirth served as the editor-in-chief of its quarterly pop cultural publication Pop, while working on brands like Frito-Lay and Discovery Channel. In 2012, Hauswirth was the recipient of the US Young Lions Competition and competed at Cannes on a global stage. She is a graduate of New York University, where she received a BA in Journalism and Graphic Design.
Gabriella Narvaez
AnalogFolk Portland
Gabriella Narvaez
associate creative director
Gabriella Narvaez is associate creative director at AnalogFolk Portland. Her client list includes brands like Nike, Luna Bar and Clif Bar. Throughout her career she's been honored with Shorty awards, a D&AD Pencil and a Clio shortlist. A recent highlight has been her work for Luna Bar; for Equal Pay Day 2017, Luna discounted all bars sold on lunabar.com by 20% and matched that discount with a donation to fund wage negotiation workshops hosted by AAUW. The team created a robust digital campaign with actress and activist Gina Rodriguez and LeanIn.org. They also launched the ‘Equality Every Day’ platform that provides simple things people can do daily to promote equality year-round. Outside of work, Narvaez gives back to her community by volunteering for a number of organizations including the Portland chapter of P.Ink (Personal Ink), a national non-profit that provides tattoos and artists to breast cancer survivors. This year she was a judge for the Scholastic National Art Show in Oregon, and also donated her time to help design a Fashion, Feminism and Finance Calendar.
Jessica Larkin
Moxie
Jessica Larkin
senior art director
Jessica Larkin is senior art director at Atlanta agency Moxie. Previously she held roles at Digitas, Scout Marketing, Applied Systems and worked as a freelancer. Describing herself as a ‘visual adventurer’, Larkin’s love of puzzle-solving informs her work as a designer, and has helped inspire her work for Moxie’s clients – which include Delta, TGI Fridays and Verizon.
Jezz Chung
Anomaly
Jezz Chung
copywriter
Jezz Chung is a New York-based copywriter at Anomaly working on brand campaigns for YouTube, Sonos and Google. Previously, Chung spent four years working on Apple at Media Arts Lab, where she worked in the account management and creative departments. She created work for the Cannes Grand Prix-winning Shot on iPhone campaign, as well as campaigns for iPad Pro, Apple Watch, and more. Chung is committed to championing diversity and inclusion in advertising and media, and has been recognized by the AAF, the 4A's, and Adcolor as a rising talent in the field. She was named Ms Adcolor 2017, named one of 4A's ‘100 People Who Make Advertising Great,’ and was chosen as one of 18 people across the US, Mexico, and UK to represent MAIP and Facebook as part of HP's inaugural ‘#MoreLikeMe’ program, which aims to champion rising voices in the industry. This year, she was inducted into the 4A's Society of Excellence as one of five MAIPers to Watch 2018.
Joan Summers
Eating For Free
Joan Summers
creator and co-host
Joan Summers is the creator and co-host of the podcast Eating For Free. The podcast investigates breaking stories that sit at the intersection of pop culture and emerging social movements through a uniquely LGBTQ+ perspective. It combines original comedy material, journalistic investigations and interviews to create one of the only original comedy created and podcasts hosted by a trans woman to break the iTunes Top 100 comedy podcasts. Her work has premiered at the historic Roxie Theatre in San Francisco and she's been highlighted in Hunger and Out Magazines. In only 30 episodes it's already featured interviews with "internet famous" influencers, acclaimed women journalists and other top performing podcasts for crossover work and promotion. Alongside this, she recently finalized the launch of her own business, Summer Sucks Entertainment, to be the face of both Eating For Free and her upcoming projects.
Kacy Emmett
Big Spaceship
Kacy Emmett
content strategist
Kacy Emmett joined Big Spaceship three years ago following an internship at online publication TheSkimm. When applying for the Big Spaceship gig, she wrote an epic cover letter that made its way around the agency and has since become infamous. Since joining as a content strategist and copywriter, Emmett has worked on some of the agency's most important projects. After the 2016 election, she and her team worked with the Obama administration to generate signs up for the Affordable Care Act. She also helped YouTube rally the voices of millions with #HerVoiceisMyVoice, a campaign celebrating women around the globe.
Kayci Baldwin
Six Things
Kayci Baldwin
managing partner
Kayci Baldwin launched branding and content creation studio Six Things aged just 23. Since launching in 2016, Baldwin and her team have worked with dozens of early stage ventures and conglomerates alike, with projects ranging from an experiential events series for fitness brand Brooklyn Boulders, to spearheading brand identity work for Chewy.com, to dynamic content creation designed to optimize conversions for Rothy's ballet flats. Baldwin and her co-founders at Six Things were recently named Founding Team of the Year by the American Business Awards. Baldwin is passionate about creating safe, collaborative and empowering spaces for women and people of color. Under her leadership, Six Things is committed to celebrating female entrepreneurship and supporting other women-owned businesses. She has sat on the Selection Committee for the Princeton Prize in Race Relations and currently serves as a board member of Project Race.
Larissa Klitzke
AppsFlyer
Larissa Klitzke
product marketing manager
Larissa Klitzke is a product marketing manager for AppsFlyer, a mobile attribution company. Larissa Klitzke plays a pivotal role in guiding AppsFlyer's product positioning and communications strategy across client, partner and agency relationships in North America. Through previous roles at M&C Saatchi Mobile, Carat and ONE/x, Klitzke has spearheaded and adapted strategies across both traditional and digital campaigns with diverse KPIs for clients like Red Bull, Amazon, Sony and Upwork. In her most recent role as a senior strategist at M&C Saatchi Mobile, Klitzke advanced client acquisition and retention by uncovering strategic insights that led to smarter, more actionable, digital campaigns. In the last 12 months, she applied her deep knowledge of mobile-first performance media to drive growth for startups like Flipagram and Rover, in addition to pushing crucial campaign insights for entrenched companies such as Microsoft.
Lauren Meredith
VML
Lauren Meredith
user experience designer
Lauren Meredith is a user experience designer in Atlanta who works to foster relationships between people and technology. Her day-to-day responsibilities include creating wireframes and interactive prototypes, sitemaps, IA, UI, and performing heuristic evaluations. Beyond UX work, Meredith ideates for and supports new business and proactive client pitches, working closely with the creative department to add fresh perspectives from her diverse educational experience. Within VML, she has touched a range of clients including the US Navy, America’s Mart, Keurig, SAB Miller, Kotex, Bridgestone and Xerox. Beyond billable work, she participates in planning office ‘leisure league’ events, fundraising events as the Atlanta advisory member for the VML Foundation, and is a member of VML’s marketing committee. In January 2018, Meredith was selected from a panel of VML’s global creative directors as the VISA Global Challenge contest winner through her CSR campaign idea for Amazon. The VISA challenge, open to all VML staff, sought the company’s best marketing ideas for current or future clients, with an award of traveling to any global company office for a week. In May 2018, Meredith and a co-worker won third place as partners in the US Young Cannes Lion Competition in the digital category for their work driving donations for a late-stage cancer foundation. Their campaign was among 350 submitted for this prize.
Lindsay Cecero
TBWA\Media Arts Lab
Lindsay Cecero
art director
Lindsay Cecero is an art director at TBWA\Media Arts Lab in Los Angeles. Cecero worked on the lauded ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign and helped to launch Apple’s Instagram account, celebrating countless perspectives through one lens and challenging and redefining what a selfie could mean with the voice of Muhammad Ali.
Liz Wells
Stink Studios
Liz Wells
user experience designer
Liz Wells, 25, is a UX designer at Stink Studios who is making waves in user experience and design. Wells advises visual designers and developers throughout the lifecycle of a project to help them meet Stink's high standards for usability and delight. Wells was the UX designer behind the Equal Justice Initiative project, ‘Lynching in America,’ an interactive website created with support from Google and based on a full report of the history and legacy of racial terror in the United States. Wells also helped create a fully interactive map experience based on this project in the Brooklyn Museum entitled ‘Legacy in Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America'. The project won a Webby Award for Best Cause Related Campaign in the People's Voice: Advertising, Media & PR category. But social good runs deeper than Stink with Liz, as she and a fellow co-worker at Stink started and run Desk Lunch, a weekly newsletter promoting the stories of women and non-binary people in the creative industry. She also is committed to mentoring and promoting younger creatives and has taught courses on empathetic interaction and experience design at SVA and Rochester Institute of Technology.
Makeda Loney
Burrell Communications
Makeda Loney
copywriter
Makeda Loney is a copywriter and poet. When she isn't writing ads for Walmart, Comcast or McDonald's as a junior copywriter at Burrell Communications, Loney is writing poems for people through Keda's Poetry Service, sending poems to readers through the post on request. She also serves as a content creator for Coalesce Chicago, an organization dedicated to cultivating and supporting diversity and inclusion in Chicago's advertising scene.
Mariana Andersen Diaz
PMG
Mariana Andersen Diaz
account lead
Mariana Andersen Diaz is a rising star at independent digital agency PMG. From intern to account lead, Diaz now leads strategy for key retail clients, including Beats by Dre, J Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch, Charlotte Tilbury and Rue 21. Her teams have met the client goals through creative, strategic and innovative social sales and the effective use of PMG's inventive proprietary technologies across search, display, social and SEO channels. Within the last 12 months, she drove impressive first quarter growth for Abercrombie (first time the company has seen growth in five years) with first quarter net sales up 11% from the previous year and positioned it for continued and unprecedented success online. Diaz has not only played a crucial role in growing PMG's client roster, but she also spearheaded the agency's expansion into Austin. She and a couple of colleagues pitched PMG's leadership team on the business opportunities in the city - and ended up running the office from her apartment. Today, less than two years later, it has moved into a permanent space and grown to over 20 employees. Diaz is also deeply committed to diversity, inclusion and equality in the field as a 'tent pole' member of PMG's 'We Collective,' a group with the goal of establishing a community that supports and encourages women and people of color in their careers. Diaz leads meetings and all-staff events focused on addressing workplace diversity issues. Their most recent event hosted a speaker panel on identifying and addressing unconscious bias.
Maxxie Goldstein
Meyvyn
Maxxie Goldstein
founder and chief executive officer
Maxxie Goldstein's career began as a strategic marketer at General Electric where she focused on strategic and competitive analysis for GE's oil and gas global service division. Following GE, Goldstein moved to Waywire, a video social networking startup based in New York, and went on to work as the lead social media strategist at Obviously Social. Goldstein founded Meyvyn in 2014, building a client roster including Paul Mitchell Brands, Sally Hershberger, Jill Stuart, Carriage House Brands and Donna Bella Hair Extensions. In her spare time, Goldstein guest lectures at several universities and high schools about the digital marketing landscape. In November of 2017, Goldstein was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Marketing and Advertising.
Meghan Dever
Possible Mobile
Meghan Dever
lead designer
Meghan Dever is currently the lead designer at Possible Mobile. Dever joined Possible Mobile in 2013 as an intern and has played a key role in developing best practices for usability testing and voice interaction design for clients in verticals such as sports and telecommunications. Dever’s career as a UX designer for major platforms such as iOS, tvOS, watchOS, Android and FireOS has given her a greater appreciation for the process and the people behind creating integrated design experiences. When not writing thought leadership pieces for leading publications like VentureBeat, Meghan is fond of hosting 'lunch and learns' at her company to help promote best practices in UX research, mobile and design.
Melissa Withorn
My Friend's Nephew
Melissa Withorn
senior designer
Melissa Withorn is senior designer at Atlanta-based creative agency My Friend's Nephew (MFN), where she is responsible for art direction and design across all of MFN's clients including General Mills, Zaxby's, Thrive Senior Living, Cortland Partners and Central Atlanta Progress. Before starting at MFN this year, Withorn was ACD at Public School and designer at Go Experience Design (now XD Agency). At Go she was lead designer on a Mercedes-Benz brand experience center at its headquarters in Alabama. Withorn worked on every visual element in the space, from the physical installations down to the digital touchscreens. Withorn took a break from the agency ladder to work as a set director in the film industry for a year, providing her with a wider bank of experiences and inspirations as a designer. In addition to her day job, Melissa is a jeweler, with products in multiple Atlanta retailers under the brand name Neck Shirt. Recently her earrings have been featured in St Beauty's music videos.
Michelle Lee
Framestore
Michelle Lee
CG artist
Since joining Framestore's LA office in 2015, CG artist Michelle Lee has crossed several disciplines and has been a key member of the 3D department. With work on several high profile projects, including theme park rides, immersive entertainment, and TVC work, she has done everything from photorealistic CG, virtual cityscapes and element simulation, to the programming of real-time virtual reality simulations. Lee is a seasoned creative who is well-versed in both classic and new mediums, from a pencil and paintbrush to computer graphics, mathematics, and coding. Of the many projects she has been a part of in the past year, she has showcased her talent developing CG creatures for Toyota, worked as a Unity Developer for the Hue VR experience, where she also coded and integrated a number of scenes, and acted as a multifaceted FX artist creating destruction and debris for Renault. An advocate for the representation of women in technical fields, Michelle supports Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization which aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science.
Mindi Price
Martin Williams
Mindi Price
art director
Mindi Price is an art director and designer at Martin Williams Advertising in Minneapolis. After joining as an intern, she was hired as a full-time designer and production artist, working on a range of clients and new business pitches. As an art director, she’s created beer packaging and campaigns for Finnegans Brew Co, shot video content for Microsoft XOGO, participated in new business pitches, and helped re-brand the Martin Williams itself.
Mo Hy
FCB Chicago
Mo Hy
senior designer
Mo Hy is a senior designer at FCB Chicago who’s worked on global brands and local civic initiatives alike. With a background in architecture, Hy specializes in human-centered designs which have helped FCB secure two of its largest new business wins in 2018, including GE Appliances. For both pitches, she set the look and feel for the creative work, including the photography, typography and color systems. Additionally, Hy designed all of the collateral for Radio Flyer's imaginary travel agency based on a vintage-style travel poster series, helping the agency win a Gold ECHO, a Silver ADC and three Bronze Cannes Lions in 2017. Most recently, Hy helped lead the design for one of the biggest B2B pitches in the last decade: the bid for Amazon's HQ2. Specifically, she designed a book that detailed why Chicago is an ideal candidate. Armed with a familiarity with site plans and a flexible grid system, she was able to present 150+ pages of content-heavy materials in a way that was inviting and easy to engage with. The book, along with other materials co-created by FCB (the creative agency behind the bid), helped persuade Amazon to name the Windy City as one of its top 20 finalists from 238 original bids.
Nayantara Dutta
McCann Worldgroup
Nayantara Dutta
content strategist
Nayantara Dutta is a writer, researcher and strategist. A content strategist at McCann Worldgroup, she previously worked at J Walter Thompson's Innovation Group, identifying consumer trends in culture, food and drink, retail and design. She has also previously worked in strategy at BBDO. Growing up in six countries, Nayantara hopes to connect the dots between cultures and elevate minority voices. In her journey so far, she has created Unapologetically Muslim, a trend report which explores the power and influence of Muslim women in the US, UK and Indonesia and explains how marketers can meaningfully communicate with them. To represent the diversity within the Muslim community, she has developed a photo project around the report which provides a platform for Muslim women to reclaim their narratives and celebrate their culture. Unapologetically Muslim has received coverage from The Drum, Campaign, Teen Vogue, and Dazed. Nayantara is also a ColorComm fellow, a co-founder of the strategy collective The Jog, and a mentor to four women of color.
Nedal Ahmed
Droga5
Nedal Ahmed
senior copywriter
Nedal Ahmed started her career at Omnicom's TracyLocke in Dallas before moving to New York for a position at BBDO. During her four years there, she worked on projects like relaunching the CVS brand and publicizing its commitment to stop selling tobacco, and also worked on campaigns in a variety of media for M&M's, Lowe's, Subway and more. During her time at BBDO, she was copywriter on a piece for P&G called ‘The Talk.’ The film addressed how for too many generations, black families have had the unfair burden of having to talk to their children about the difficulties and dangers of being black in America. ‘The Talk’ successfully accomplished its goal: get real people to think and talk about race, even if it doesn't affect them directly. The film was covered by outlets like The Washington Post, Forbes and People magazine, as well as CBS and NBC. Within the industry, Nedal's work has been recognized through Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, Webby Awards and more. She's currently nominated for an Emmy for her work on ‘The Talk.’ She's been at Droga5 since January 2018.
Rachel Lowenstein
Mindshare
Rachel Lowenstein
associate director strategy innovation
Rachel Lowenstein is an emerging tech specialist, dedicated to finding creative, innovative ways for brands to reach consumers, be it through AI, AR, VR, audio, voice technology, chatbots, and more. As partner and associate director on the Invention+, team at Mindshare (Invention+, Mindshare’s unit dedicated to driving media innovation for brands through new technology and ideas), she works with brands such as Chanel, BlackRock, Lufthansa, Pandora Jewelry, and others across North America. She’s recently worked with a cross-discipline Mindshare team on designing a special audio workshop series that helps clients develop audio and voice-based ideas and branding elements. As an advocate for LGTBQ+ and gender equality, she's grown Mindshare's XXChange program, dedicated to helping minority groups at Mindshare come together and address their needs. At Mindshare, Lowenstein has been promoted three times in four years. A few of the campaigns she's worked on include a chatbot for a client that provided consumers with tailored brand gift recommendations during the holidays, enabling them to purchase online or find the nearest retailer to buy in-store. Another chatbot, this time for an insurance brand, helped customers find renter's insurance. She created an AR-powered banner ad, used as a way to test drive a new vehicle and drive preorders for an auto brand. In another project, to keep investors on top of the companies that most interest them, she developed an award-winning ad product with Seeking Alpha for a financial services client, delivering 100% relevant creative content about their portfolio to readers. Over the last few years, Rachel's work has won numerous awards, including the MMA's Smarties, contributing to Mindshare winning the MMA's Agency of the Year, and being personally awarded the Cynopsis Rising Star Award for her industry innovation.
Sally Carmichael
Airbnb
Sally Carmichael
designer
Sally Carmichael is a designer based in San Francisco. She is the creative lead for Airbnb's magazine and specializes in art direction, layout and creating thoughtful and engaging brand experiences. Originally from Kansas City, she got her start working with Tad Carpenter and Willoughby Design, eventually moving west where she worked at Chronicle Books before joining the in-house creative team at Airbnb.
Samantha Salzano
Digitas New York
Samantha Salzano
associate creative director
Samantha Salzano is associate creative director at Digitas New York. Having been with the company since she started her career, they say they plan to “hold on to her like a vampire bat holds on to a lamb's neck”. Throughout her time at Digitas she's worked on Traveler's, Mondelez and Delta, to name a few. Recently, Salzano launched Outside In, a shoppable mixed reality music experience for American Express in partnership with Justin Timberlake. Hosted on the Amex Music app, Outside In blends augmented reality, virtual reality and e-commerce into one. Salzano was deeply involved in all aspects of the project – from concepting the core idea to filming Timberlake in the 40-camera 360º studio and then creating the social campaign to promote the experience. The experience was applauded by some of the music industry's largest news sources including Rolling Stone, Variety and Billboard. Salzano has a passion for strange internet sensations and believes understanding them is important to creating relevant social campaigns. In addition to all of her client work, Salzano has also created an invaluable agency training program called the SRT (Standardized Relevancy Testing) to keep her colleagues up-to-date on the latest trends, like new Instagram stars and SoundCloud rappers. The tool ensures that all team members are in the know of trends outside of advertising, which might just be an inspiration for their next big campaign.
Shaunah Margaret
Rauxa
Shaunah Margaret
senior copywriter
Shaunah Margaret is a senior copywriter at Rauxa. A graduate of the Advertising Design program at College for Creative Studies, she was accepted as a 4A's MAIP fellow in 2012, where she started as a copywriting intern at BBH. She continued her career at Tenthwave (now known as Wirestone) and Tribal Worldwide, where she helped launch campaigns for Advil, Milky Way, and Robitussin, among others. She recently accepted a position at Rauxa as a senior copywriter, where she will be working on Verizon Wireless. In 2018, and her partner Ashlea Ramirez launched the first ever mentorship program for women of color run by women of color, Women Who Create, which connects college students with professional women in creative fields. Over 100 women signed up as mentors and mentees in its 2018 summer session, and it is slated to expand to other US cities. Margaret was also nominated as one of the participants for HP's ‘#MoreLikeMe’, a first of its kind pilot program to champion diverse creative talent, sending 18 participants to Cannes.
Shea Glover
Adolescent Content
Shea Glover
director
Since joining Adolescent Content, beginning a directing career at age 18 with a project for Samsung, Shea Glover has made a unique foray into the advertising space. Now 21, Glover is currently attending Pace University to earn a BFA in acting. Glover's professional debut came along when Samsung approached her to direct a series of spots for the Samsung Galaxy A8. In addition to directing at Adolescent, she is also involved in creating content that will speak to her fellow youth audience. In high school, Glover created viral videos based on social experiments. After seeing one of her projects, Samsung wanted to recreate the film, and the ‘Be You’ was released in January 2018 following the same format.
Taelor Pawnell
Greater Than One
Taelor Pawnell
senior art director
Taelor Pawnell is a senior art director at Greater Than One, specializing in the medical marketing sector. Pawnell started her career as a junior art director at CDM New York. While working on brands such as Utibron, Ranexa, Tysabri and helping launch Spinraza, a treatment for children and adults with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, she was promoted to senior art director within a year and a half. Her role continues to expand at her new agency, GTO. Pawnell is left in charge of brands within the work of two pharmaceutical companies Grifols and Neurelis as well as oversight of a junior art director. With blossoming opportunities, Pawnell has had many successes over the last 12 months. She designed the corporate branding for the new pharmaceutical company Neurelis, she's also an integral part of the product launch coming down the company pipeline. Always keeping her work inspirational and innovative, Pawnell designed a children's book for children diagnosed with Von Willebrand Disease to help them better understand their disease state and realize that they are not alone. Her most recent achievement includes helping Grifols launch its first direct-to-patient campaign, 'Living with Alpha-1', for its drug Prolastin which is for patients diagnosed with Genetic COPD, Alpha-1. Outside of work, Pawnell volunteers her time as a mentor with the 4A's MAIP and Women Who Create – a female-led initiative that focuses on women of color. She keeps the conversation going by maintaining her life and style blog Stylish Sista.
Vera Keiter
BBDO Worldwide
Vera Keiter
copywriter
Copywriter Vera Keiter plies her trade at BBDO Worldwide as one half of a Russian-Korean-American creative partnership with Delilah Kim. She’s worked for brands including Dunkin' Donuts, Pedigree, Band-Aid, J&J, AT&T and Dove Chocolate, and been featured across the industry press for her work with Kim. The pair will be jointly teaching a master's level advertising class at City College of New York (CCNY) this fall. Vera is an alum of the Branding and Integrated Communications Master's program at CCNY.
Zoe Kessler
Barton F Graf
Zoe Kessler
creative director
Zoe Kessler arrived at Barton F Graf from McCann in 2016, and has had a hand in shaping every piece of the business – from Supercell and Snyder's-Lance to Sour Patch Kids – resulting in some of the agency’s most iconic work to date. She bolsters the agency's unmistakable mission to make the most entertaining, unexpected, and effective work in the world. She built an entire brand platform for Emerald Nuts using a two-word Amazon review (‘Yes Good’), turned a video request into a live Broadway musical for Supercell mobile game Boom Beach and brought a series of real-life dating stories to life in an epic data-driven OOH campaign for Hinge. Last year, Kessler formed the Coverage Coalition, a rebellion of creatives, agencies and production companies to take on President Donald Trump and make up for the 90% cut in the advertising budget for Affordable Healthcare’s sign-up campaign. Kessler passionately spends her time outside of work dedicated to causes important to her. She's a member of Nevertheless, a group of women in advertising working to market the resistance, and an active member of Tickled Hot Pink, a committee raising money for Planned Parenthood each year through events – reaching $120k in 2017.
Miki Turner
Laughlin Constable
Miki Turner
senior copywriter
Miki Turner, senior copywriter at Laughlin Constable, started her advertising career at Arnold Worldwide Boston as a junior copywriter on the Progressive Insurance team, writing for social, digital, and national TV campaigns. Her work included the mock soap opera ‘The Turns We Take’ campaign and contributions the multi-award-winning PUR ‘Know Your Water’ digital campaign. After the Flint water crisis brought the country’s problematic water infrastructure to the surface, the team created an immersive website in which Americans could easily pull up local tap water reports and see exactly what contaminants were coming out of their faucets. Turner wrote for SolarCity's ‘At Home with Ra’ campaign, aimed at raising consumer awareness on alternative energy through the means of a buff and tan bird-sun-god man. The campaign won a Silver Effie Award in the Positive Change category, effectively breaking through the clutter of traditional green advertising with something new and delightfully unseen in the category. Turner joined the Laughlin Constable family as a copywriter in April 2017 and was promoted to senior in March of this year after swiftly making her mark. She played an integral part in Laughlin's bid to become the new agency-of-record for DG Yuengling & Son, America's oldest brewery, and the digital agency-of-record for Hoosier Lottery. Turner is now a lead writer on the Yuengling account. She is also writing a fully integrated campaign for Acuity Insurance, in which she is working alongside outside illustrators, animators and sound designers, and is the lead writer on the Hydroxycut account.