The Drum’s 50 Under 30 US, part 1: meet the most exciting emerging female creatives

Here you'll find the first 10 inspiring individuals who make up this year's honorees.

Aisha Hakim, art director, Venable Bell & Partners

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, consumer marketing manager, aspireTV​

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, partner and creative director, Godfrey Dadich Partners

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, senior art director, TracyLocke​

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, copywriter, TBWA Media Arts Lab

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, art director, Ogilvy

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, associate director, M&C Saatchi Performance

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, copywriter, Colle McVoy

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, copywriter, Arnold Worldwide

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, associate creative director, Energy BBDO

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.

If you're interested in learning more about The Drum's 50 Under 30, contact Toyin Rodwell at toyin.rodwell@thedrum.com.