The Drum's 50 Under 30 US, part 5: meet the outstanding talents who complete our list

See the 2018 50 Under 30 US in full here.

Nedal Ahmed, senior copywriter, Droga5​

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, associate director strategy innovation, Mindshare

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 Life+ team at Mindshare (Life+ is Mindshare's division dedicated to emerging technology and the world of connected devices), 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, designer, Airbnb

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, associate creative director, Digitas New York

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, senior copywriter, Rauxa

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, director, Adolescent Content

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, senior art director, Greater Than One

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, copywriter, BBDO Worldwide

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, creative director, Barton F Graf

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, senior copywriter, Laughlin Constable

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.

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