We use our cross-disciplinary expertise to change how people work.

Morgan Marzec

Morgan founded Strategy Muse to bring the power of design thinking, storytelling and organizational culture to bear on today’s most pressing business challenges. She specializes in aligning corporate culture and operations to advance complex reputation and public policy objectives.

Before founding Strategy Muse, Morgan served on the executive management committee of Gagen MacDonald LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm and recognized pioneer in employee engagement and strategy execution. There she led many of the firm’s flagship accounts, working with clients in areas such as M&A, corporate restructurings, strategic planning, enterprise systems implementations, culture shifts and operational transformation.

Morgan’s innate curiosity and desire to “rewire her brain,” drove her to pursue graduate work in speculative design. Through her studies, Morgan worked hands on with emerging technologies that are shaping how people interact with each other, our work environments and the broader world. Drawing on her experience in corporate anthropology, her thesis work explored participatory models of design and community-based storytelling.

Over the course of her career, Morgan has had the privilege to work with leading organizations such as Aetna, BASF, Baxter Healthcare, Deloitte, Edison International, Exelon, ITT, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, New York Power Authority, Northwestern Mutual, Regeneron, SoCalGas, United Airlines and Walgreens.

She is a graduate of the Arthur W. Page Society’s Future Leaders program and was named one of PRWeek’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars.

After a lifetime braving Chicago winters, Morgan moved to Los Angeles where she now lives with her husband and daughter.

Education

Art Center College of Design, Post Baccalaureate, Media Design Practices
Sarah Lawrence College, BA, Liberal Arts
Wadham College, Oxford University, UK, English Literature

Helen Andersen

With a passion for aligning and empowering leaders with the capabilities to be successful, Helen brings clients a powerful mix of coaching, communication, organizational development, and research experience.

She has designed and facilitated both in person and online training, as well as personalized, one-on-one coaching. Her approach focuses on guiding leaders to unleash their capability against competencies, organizational goals, and their unique desired future.

Helen has also led strategic communication and change leadership initiatives for large, global corporations. She believes in data-based interventions (both with individuals and organizations) and has conducted various audits for clients related to culture change, internal communications, and leadership competencies.

Clients also rely on Helen for executive talent management, succession planning, organizational design, and employee engagement.

Education

Saybrook University, Mind-Body Medicine (Graduate studies on the PhD track)
Columbia University, MA, Social-Organizational Psychology
Rutgers University, BA, Economics

Coaching Credentials and Certifications

Associate Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation
Certified Professional Coach, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC)
Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, IPEC

Lindsay Anderson

Lindsay has spent her career building and championing brands. Lindsay merges her passion for design and culture with her ability to synthesize complex information and inputs into meaningful insights. She is a strong communicator who has inspired and led teams to produce award-winning creative. Prior to joining Strategy Muse, Lindsay was the creative director at the Kellogg School of Management, where she helped develop and led the creative group to reshape the brand with best-in-class creative.

With experience in marketing, branding and advertising agencies as well as in-house roles, Lindsay’s strong listening skills and an insatiable curiosity paired with years of experience allow her to work with senior level executives helping to set strategy while also inspiring creative teams to deliver meaningful, beautiful and effective creative.

Education

IIT Institute of Design, Post Baccalaureate, Design Methodologies
University of Colorado, BA, English

Dr. Aparna Arvind

Aparna’s passion is leading change. She has devoted the last two decades to helping organizations align human behavior with professional development and personal wellbeing to inspire new levels of performance.

Drawing from her experience as a physician, a change management consultant and executive coach, Aparna is known for her versatility, empathy and ability to build collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders. She brings a relentless optimism and entrepreneurial spirit to Strategy Muse, supporting clients in the areas of executive coaching, leadership development, leadership transitions, organizational change, mental fitness for career burnout, and emotional intelligence.

Aparna has worked with pharmaceutical and technology companies, global health non-profits, as well as business and financial services firms. Her experience living and working in many countries also influences her mindset and approach. Aparna’s core strength is adaptability—she has a deep understanding of and appreciation for cultural nuances and “meets clients where they are” to help them gain insight and breakthrough barriers to performance.

Education

University of Birmingham (UK), MBA
Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University (India), MD

Certifications

Hogan Practitioner, Hogan Assessments
Associate Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation
First 90 Days Genesis Coach and Facilitator, Genesis Advisers
Executive Coach, Center for Executive Coaching
Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, Genos North America
Everything DiSC Practitioner, Wiley
Change Management Practitioner, Prosci
Red Team Thinking Coach Level-1, TruThinking Corp.

Ethan Barnowsky

Ethan is an animator and designer with over 10 years of experience. With expertise in storytelling through illustration, design, and animation, he has collaborated with clients from across the globe across a multitude of media, including film, television, commercials, music videos, idents, editorial, branding, and murals.

Ethan has worked with hundreds of clients, including HBO/Game of Thrones, McDonald's, Pepsico, Hallmark, Giphy, Snapchat, Dark Matter Coffee, Arm & Hammer, Merrell Shoes, Outside Magazine, P&G, Diplo, Dillon Francis, and Goose Island Beer Company. He also has a passion for working with artists, non-profit organizations and social initiatives.

Ethan lives in Chicago, IL with his family.

Education

Drury University, MA Communications
Truman State University, BA Communications

Tracy Benson, ACC

Tracy has been mentoring, coaching and advising leaders and managers in some of the world's leading companies for 30+ years including ADP, American Standard, Aramark, GE, Ingersoll Rand, Mars, Merck, Nike, Novartis, PepsiCo, as well as mid-sized market-leaders and non-profits.

Her approach is to help clients amplify their strengths, eliminate blind spots and expand their impact on measures ranging from productivity, efficiency and speed of change adoption to team and employee engagement. Tracy’s superpower is to balance the traditional coaching model with providing tangible, actionable advice that leaders and their teams can put to use immediately, positively changing behaviors and outcomes.

Before joining Strategy Muse, Tracy founded and ran On the Same Page, LLC, supporting global Fortune 250 companies to engage employees during transformational change. Prior to that, she served as Senior Consultant and Brand Alignment Leader with Towers Perrin, and as Global Leader of Brand Engagement at The Empower Group (formerly Brecker & Merryman).

Tracy also led global communication and change management teams at American Express and KPMG, and began her career as a journalist interviewing and writing about CEOs and their strategies with IndustryWeek Magazine.

Tracy has been an avid mentor and supporter of others in her profession and has been featured in and contributed bylined articles to the Harvard Business Review, Industry Week Magazine, Fast Company, AMA Quarterly, MarketWatch Radio, Bloomberg Radio, and The CEO Magazine.

Education

The Wharton School, Executive Development Program
Northwestern University, BS, Human Development and Social Policy
The Learning Organization Conference at Bretton Woods with Peter Senge
The Covey Leadership Center, Senior Leadership Immersive

Certifications

Associate Certified Coach (ACC), International Coaching Federation
Certified Executive Coach, Center for Executive Coaching
Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner
Neuro-Linguistic Programming Coach
Somatic Coach (in progress)
Reiki I and Reiki II (Usui Reiki with Holy Fire)

Stephen Boatright

As a cultural geographer trained in qualitative research methods, Stephen has a heightened appreciation of the significant role that place, culture, and emotion play in the development of strong interpersonal relationships and attainment of organizational goals. Engaging with diverse arrays of stakeholders, he analyzes data to identify institutional strengths, weaknesses, and untapped potential in order to develop solutions for more effective and emotionally intelligent collaboration.

Before relocating to the West Coast, Stephen was a data scientist with New York City’s Department of Social Services, where he coordinated intra- and inter-governmental research and designed database management applications. For his PhD, he conducted an ethnographic research project on the home buying experience in major US housing markets, developing insight into the market need for more empathetic professional servicing. He has also coordinated multidisciplinary research on performance anxiety, facilitated instructional technology workshops, and built numerous academic websites.

Stephen has more than a decade of experience in curriculum development, public speaking, and group moderation. He is currently on the faculty at UCLA and Queens College where he teaches courses in cultural geography and urban studies.

Education

Graduate Center of the City University of New York, PhD, Geography
Sarah Lawrence College, BA, Liberal Arts
New York University in Paris, European Studies

Brendan Brown

A storyteller at heart, Brendan helps clients infuse their strategies with human meaning through visual narration, video production and motion graphics design. In the last six years, he has helped a number of clients transform their strategies into compelling stories, including Johnson and Johnson, Citi-Banamex, and Rosetta Stone. Recently, Brendan began applying his creative talents and storytelling skills in the learning and development space, where he is helping clients shape engaging, interactive training content. As part of an E-learning design team with one professional services client, he co-created an interactive platform which used motion graphics as the foundation to drive compliance training.

In addition to corporate work, Brendan lends his creativity and talents to support social initiatives. One project of note is his recent collaboration with international journalist Micah Garen to create content for the 2017 Social Progress Index. Brendan's strength in design is rooted in his strong listening skills and ability to translate complex concepts into simple and elegant visual solutions.

Education

Loyola University of Chicago, International Film & Digital Media Studies, BFA

Elizabeth Brunell

With a background in conflict resolution and the arts, Elizabeth is passionate about effecting positive, meaningful change - for people, organizations, and the world at large.

Elizabeth is trained in multiple conflict resolution and conflict management strategies, such as mediation, group facilitation, circle process facilitation, and reflective listening. She is also skilled in human resources, communication, training, and coaching. Leveraging this skill set, Elizabeth helps leaders, teams, and organizations optimize their employee engagement and employee relations to maximize the potential of their people.

Most recently, Elizabeth worked on the HR team at Arcosa, Inc.'s Wind Towers manufacturing facility in Illinois. At Arcosa, Elizabeth drove company culture change initiatives at the plant level. She implemented and managed new plant internal communications and worked closely with leaders across departments to shape employee engagement strategy, initiatives, and execution.

Elizabeth also fostered positive employee relations by serving as an intermediary between manufacturing employees and upper plant leadership, collecting and analyzing feedback and shaping culture change strategy and tactics accordingly.

Elizabeth's experience spans many industries, including food and agriculture, manufacturing, higher education, and government, in roles involving HR, communications, training, operations, and alternative dispute resolution.

Education

DePauw University, BA, Peace and Conflict Studies
DePauw University, BM, Performance

Melinda Brunell

A trusted partner and advisor to leaders for more than 20 years, Melinda uses her expertise in communications, human resource development, change management and strategy execution to help leaders transform their organizations through their people.

Most recently, Melinda served as Senior Vice President, Organizational Capability, for National Dairy Council. There she led efforts to increase employee engagement and performance to support a radically new business strategy, through communication and training programs, talent management strategies and culture change initiatives.

Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer for Chicago-based employee engagement and strategy execution consulting firm Gagen MacDonald LLC. In addition to building the firm's own performance management and compensation systems, she worked with clients during merger integrations, reorganizations and business transformations.

Over the course of her career, Melinda has worked in a wide variety of industries, including professional, financial and environmental services, transportation, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and nonprofits. Clients have included Accenture, Bristol-Myers Squibb, International Truck & Engine Corporation, Kemper Financial Services and Waste Management Inc.

Education

Cornell University, Certificate Program in Human Resources Studies
Washington State University, BA, Communications

Certificates and Accreditations

Accredited in Public Relations (APR), Public Relations Society of America
Certified in Korn Ferry Leadership Architect ® Competency Suite

Marissa Buonamici

Marissa brings a keen sense of empathy to her work. She is passionate about building purpose-driven cultures and fostering a real sense of belonging in the work environment.

Marissa’s experience in human resources spans orientation to exit interviews—and everything in between. Prior to joining Strategy Muse, Marissa worked with Amazon in its fulfillment centers, where she managed complex HR and employee relations issues. Having started her career within the warehouse, Marissa is attuned to the front-line perspective. She listens to both management and employees to understand nuanced perspectives and find common ground.

A skilled problem solver and analytical thinker, Marissa synthesizes employee feedback to detect trends and make informed decisions that build a better employee experience. At Amazon, Marissa created and implement engagement and recognition initiatives that increased retention at several warehouse locations. Marissa also supported managers through frequently changing company programs, guiding leaders on how to better support and show up well for their employees.

Clients appreciate Marissa’s deep commitment to improving organizational effectiveness through better leadership, employee engagement and collaboration.

Education

Indiana University Bloomington, BA, Psychology
Indiana University Bloomington, Honors Certificate, Liberal Arts and Management Program (LAMP)

Olu Burrell

Olu believes in the power and pervasiveness of story. He remains convinced that our reality consists of the stories we make up about the world around us—and further, that our identity is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves over the course of our lifetime. It is this belief that informs how he works with clients—individuals, teams and organizations—through narrative interventions.  

A student of inquiry, Olu treats the interrogative as the imperative. He believes that questions often more informative than answers. This approach is not without a bit of irony since it was just over ten years ago that he discovered—in perhaps would be best described as a moment of epiphany—that his first name, Olutosin, is an anagram for the word “solution.” 

Olu brings his foundation as a storyteller and poet into every space he occupies. His career arc has taken him from youth education to youth employment to adult employment and then to adult education and finally to leadership, organizational, and executive development.  With Strategy Muse clients, Olu shows up as insightful and empathetic, building trust through collaborative efforts as he works to refine messaging both internally and externally; to support organizational change efforts as related to people processes; as well as in serving as thought partner and sounding board to his coaching clients.

Education

American University, MS, Organization Development
Howard University, BA, English

Washington State University, BA, Communications

Certifications

Comprehensive Evidence-Based Coaching, Fielding Graduate University Professional Certified Coach (PCC), International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Senior Practitioner, Global Individual Accreditation, European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC)
Leadership Circle Profile 360, Collective Leadership Assessment, Emotional-Social Competency Inventory 360, Intercultural Development Inventory, Myers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI), EQi 2.0 and EQ 360, Polarities Approach to Continuity and Transformation

Emily Capps

Emily is a communications industry vet with more than 20 years of messaging experience and more than 10 in strategy.

She pairs B2B and B2C expertise in brand, internal communications, web and app with User Experience (UX) best practices. She works with stakeholders from global brand to product owners to create messaging that works on all levels.

Emily’s experience spans most industries including: Pharmaceuticals, Retail, Healthcare, Business Services, Tech, Agriculture, Banking, and Wellness.

Prior to Strategy Muse, Emily worked internally at InterContinental Hotel Group as a UX content strategist and as a writer for branding agencies like Ogilvy, JWT, as well as digital shops AKQA, VML, and others.

Emily is a member of the Amphibian Foundation’s Communications and Atlanta's Humane Society’s foster team.

She lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband.

Education

Winthrop University, BS, Sociology and Political Science
President, Sociology Honor Society

Melanie DeCarolis

Melanie has over 25 years of internal and external communications experience, always bringing curiosity and deep questions to every client interaction.

As an armchair linguist, jargon-phobe, and informal student of Natural Language Processing (NLP), she’s constantly on the search for the right words that build memorable, actionable messaging that creates connection and trust.

She’s applied her efforts for entities including PUMA, Zappos, Hasbro, HP, Keurig, Microsoft, Staples, Canon USA, Nationwide Insurance, Ameriprise Financial, Constant Contact, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and numerous wine retailers. Her ghostwriting has appeared in several national outlets and publications. With a deep background in financial services, she also knows how to play well with compliance and legal departments.

Melanie is based in Boston, along with her band and a couple of books she is writing.

Education

Queens University of Charlotte, MFA, Creative Writing
Boston University, BS, Journalism

Diana File

For the past 15 years, Diana has driven record-breaking results for multi-national corporations such as NASDAQ, Verizon, and the Israeli military, as well as dozens of small businesses and start-ups around the world.

Diana uses neuroscience to empower organizations to build highly collaborative, inclusive teams that break records in productivity and profit. Her proprietary analytics methodologies uncover the deep neuroscientific factors that dictate success or failure. From there, she translates assessment into strategy and drives cross-functional implementation. This integrated approach helps employees and organizations stay agile, accountable, and competitive in the face of dynamic changes in their marketplace and workforce.

A former Israel Defense Forces organizational psychologist, Diana has transformed decision trees in complex hierarchies and spearheaded global research on why intractable conflicts persist and how to inspire their resolution.

Diana’s expertise spans the areas of workforce analytics, team building, project management, organizational design and effectiveness, conflict resolution, process improvement, decision rights, digital transformation, and best practice research. In addition to her consulting work, Diana delivers trainings, keynotes, and workshops to help business leaders identify and implement best-practice metrics, KPIs, and OKRs.

She is fluent in English, Hebrew, and Russian.

Education

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, MA, Psychology
Yale University, BA, Psychology

Ted Franklin

Ted is native New Yorker and an award-winning creative talent whose work is known as much for its creative impact as for its connecting power. His experience spans a broad spectrum of disciplines from campaign development to branding, digital to experiential, video to earned-social and all points in between, and sectors from beverage alcohol, to wellness, CPG and technology.

The intention behind Ted’s creative campaigns has always been to foster meaningful human connections between brands or companies, and those they want to attract. Whether working on internal programs for large corporations, building communities for some of the world’s most iconic brands or increasing the social media following for startups, Ted is just as focused on using creative as a vehicle to communicate a reason to believe in a product, as he is about cultivating a reason to belong to a brand’s purpose. To him, creative should turn heads and change minds, and successful creative inspires people to tell a brand’s story on its behalf.

Along his journey, Ted has created award winning work for some of the world’s most iconic consumer brands: Guinness, Johnnie Walker, NFL, Mercedes-Benz, Gillette, Phillips, IBM, Scholastic, Kraft Foods, HP, T-Mobile, New York City Opera – as well as for companies on the cutting edge of healthcare like Novartis, Merck and Johnson & Johnson, and human rights, The Omidyar Group.

His work has been recognized with numerous Effie, PRWeek and Sabre Awards.

Education

The School of Visual Arts, BFA

Lauren Glazer

Lauren brings more than two decades of team and brand building experience to bear in her work helping individuals, teams and organizations achieve their goals. Her expertise spans industries, from hospitality to healthcare, and organizations, from large, complex multinationals to more nimble upstarts.

With a passionate belief that unlocking individual potential is the key to collective success, Lauren supports leaders and helps them nurture their own high-performance, high-growth teams. She approaches every challenge with a multidisciplinary perspective, deep sensitivity and voracious curiosity.

Most recently, Lauren served as Chief Brand Officer for BCW, a top-three global communications firm, where she helped the organization articulate and activate the corporate brand strategy and employer brand, galvanizing more than 4,000 employees around a collective ambition.

Prior to BCW, Lauren was a Principal at boutique strategic consulting firm Batten & Co. There she developed purpose-driven brand strategies working closely with executive leadership at Johnson & Johnson, Tiffany & Co. and Bluebird Bio, among other leading companies.

Earlier in her career, Lauren held leadership roles at globally recognized advertising agencies Wieden+Kennedy, BBDO and gyro, partnering with clients from Delta Air Lines to Aramark and Lincoln Financial Group. Lauren launched her career with one of the admired brands in the restaurant industry, The Union Square Hospitality Group, where she got her first taste of what great leadership, a purpose-driven culture and a supportive learning environment can unleash.

Education

Yale University, BA, English and Theater Studies
Graduate of WK 12 (Advertising), Wieden + Kennedy

Certifications

Brain Based Coach, NeuroLeadership Institute
Mindful Leadership, Leading Above the Line
Hogan Assessment Systems
Myers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI) - in process

Courtney Dubin

Courtney understands that engagement is an active endeavor and brings to her clients creative strategies that activate people around a shared purpose and culture. She has an insatiable curiosity for technology and is current on the latest best practices in digital communications. What makes Courtney truly great, however, is that it’s never about technology for the sake of technology. You can count on her to listen to and understand your organization, and then help you come up with creative solutions to move your strategy forward.

Currently, Courtney is leading youth engagement and digital strategy at the NFL and National Dairy Council-backed nonprofit GENYOUth, where she developed and runs the social entrepreneurship program, AdVenture Capital. She also oversees large-scale digital efforts for the organization, including the re-design launch of the Fuel Up to Play 60 website, the largest in-school health and wellness program in the country.

Previously, Courtney co-ran the innovation design studio Derring-do Design, which focused on reinventing college for the 21st century and through new student-centered models. She helped clients such as The Gates Foundation, Western Governors University, Johnson Country Community College, and Lumina Foundation for Education on initiatives that have helped students persevere and complete their degrees. Courtney has also designed and facilitated innovation workshops and creative experiences with Fortune 500 companies.

Courtney started her career in media and entertainment working at William Morris Agency in the famed agent trainee program, A&E, Discovery Communications, and FOX News, where she helped launch of the FOX Business Network and FOXBusiness.com as a member of the Editorial Committee. She’s been a featured panelist at SXSWedu, written for sites including the Presidential Youth Fitness Program and the Huffington Post, and serves on the Board of Directors of Curious on Hudson, which offers innovative learning opportunities for students in K-5 and middle school in the greater New York area.

Education

Boston University, BS, Communications

Jack Goodman

Jack Goodman has more than 25 years of experience helping organizations lead through transformation. Jack works closely with executives, managers and communicators to build their core communications skills, align messages across disparate audiences, and create compelling narratives for their organizations.

Jack comes to Strategy Muse from Thomson Reuters, where he was Vice President of Communications. There, Jack led communications for several businesses and corporate functions, supporting multiple acquisitions and divestitures, outsourcing deals and corporate restructurings – including Thomson’s $17 billion acquisition of Reuters. Jack also spearheaded Thomson Financial’s first communications program for managers, which improved employees’ line of sight to company priorities and positive perceptions of leadership communications.

Before Thomson Reuters, Jack worked for IBM as director of its “w3” corporate intranet, where he helped to deliver company-wide messaging, enhance the user experience and measure the value of the intranet. Prior to IBM, he headed employee communications at McGraw-Hill; co-led the intranet practice at Xceed, a web consultancy; and worked in public relations for Golin-Harris and Makovsky & Company.

From 2010-16, Jack was a Visiting Professor at Newcastle University Business School in the UK, where he helped the School’s corporate stakeholders develop messaging and build communications competencies, lectured on communications principles and practices to MBA students, and was a member of the School’s MBA Advisory Boards in the UK and North America. 

Jack is the author of “Fish Where the Fish Are: How Smart Companies Use Managers to Communicate Change” (Workforce Solutions Review, July 2014).

Education

Binghamton University, MBA
Boston University, BA, Sociology

Laura Jacobs

Partnering with leaders and teams, Laura builds and executes innovative people and communication strategies to inspire change and deliver results.

Laura provides focused expertise leading through change and transformation. She is an M&A change management, culture, and integration specialist with a track record of driving successful people-focused outcomes for 15+ acquisitions and divestitures. Additional specialty areas include strategic communications and employee engagement.

Most recently, Laura served as the Change Management and Employee Experience Lead within Deloitte’s Corporate Development team. Specially, she led change management and communications planning across Deloitte’s portfolio of acquisitions and investments. She improved the success of post-merger integration through communications, involvement and onboarding of leaders and employees to help them successfully transition and build careers at Deloitte.

Before Deloitte, Laura served as a Vice President, Managing Consultant leading Ketchum Change’s West Coast business. In her eight-year tenure at Ketchum Change, Laura worked with her clients to drive their most important organizational change and communication initiatives. Her clients spanned across industry and included American Express, Applied Materials, FedEx, Philips, and Quest Diagnostics, among others.

Education

New York University, MA, Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Georgetown University, BA, Psychology

Camille Holt

Camille has dedicated her career to shedding light on insights and solutions that inspire people and business success. She brings 15+ years of diverse experience having served as a strategic partner and consultant in many areas spanning talent strategy, change management, analytics, leadership, organizational learning and development, and total rewards (compensation, benefits and wellness).

Prior to joining Strategy Muse, Camille was a leader in employee engagement and experience, workforce analytics, and organizational development at Silicon Valley companies Varian and Stitch Fix. As head of People Insights, she utilized data and research, compelling storytelling, and strong partnerships with leaders to guide strategic direction and operational priorities, inform evidence-based action, and inspire continuous improvement across the organizations. She has led global, large-scale transformation initiatives that have enabled the achievement of world-class levels of employee engagement, and resulted in measurable improvements in areas such as talent acquisition and retention, communication and collaboration, and leadership and organizational effectiveness.

Earlier in her career, Camille held roles in project and program management at Pacific Gas and Electric and in behavior science research and clinical psychology at the University of California. She draws upon her experience, education, and deep empathy to help people and organizations accomplish positive change to realize their vision.

Education

San Jose State University, MS, Industrial/Organizational Psychology
University of California Santa Barbara, BA, Psychology

Certifications

360 feedback coaching, TruScore
Assessments such as Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) and Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) Foundations of NeuroLeadership
Professional in Human Resources (PHR)

Sonya Jackson

Sonya Jackson is a self-described Executive Producer of ideas that matter. She is a senior corporate executive with more than 25 years experience in communications, reputation management, giving and social impact.

An accomplished writer, producer, playwright and activist, Sonya uses storytelling, media, technology and live experiences as a force for good. She is Producer and Impact Producer of Punch 9 for Harold Washington, the first feature-length film about Chicago’s first African-American Mayor.

Sonya was previously Chief Experience Officer for Bonfire, a company created to ignite the power of women to change the rules of the modern workforce, where she built transformative experiences for members. He expertise includes large event production and curation, including pivoting from in person to virtual events.

Prior to Bonfire, Sonya served as President of the United Airlines Foundation and Managing Director of Corporate and Community Affairs for United Airlines. She was also President of the BP Foundation and Senior Global Business Adviser for BP’s Global Social Investment Business Unit; Executive Director of The Sears-Roebuck Foundation and Assistant Director of the Sara Lee Foundation.

Sonya has been honored for achievement and was named to Savoy Magazine’s “Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America” and “Top 100 Most Influential Women in Corporate America.” She was named to Today’s Chicago Woman’s, “100 Women Making A Difference in Chicago” and Chicago Social Magazine’s “Who Is Chicago.” She has also been recognized with the Chicago Defender’s “Women of Excellence Award,” Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization’s “Harte Award” and the Black Public Relations Society’s "Corporate Leader Award."

Sonya is a founding board member of the Innovation Foundation of Chicago (Chicago Ideas) and serves on the board of advisors of the Truman National Security Project/Center for National Policy. She is an Advisor to Ignite and Operating Advisor to L Street Collaborative. She is also a former National Board Member of the NAACP and previously served on the board of directors of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Education

University of Iowa, BA, Sociology

Michelle Jones

A Fortune 500 C-suite executive, Michelle ’s hallmark is transforming the communications function into a high-performing, outcomes-oriented driver of corporate strategy. She has deep expertise in business strategy, public affairs, digital and social media, internal communication, crisis communication, investor communication, mergers & acquisitions, and branding.

Michelle’s 25+ year career includes sales, consulting, delivery, and operations leadership including multi-million direct profit and loss (P&L) responsibility within diverse industries. Her broad business background and communications expertise enables her to unravel complex business issues and deliver clutter-busting omni-channel solutions that connect stakeholders, invigorate corporate cultures and build brands. Michelle has deep experience leading business transformation having served as the Chief Communications Officer at CH2M, Jacobs, Carter & Burgess, and Covansys.

Most recently Michelle served as Senior Vice President, Global Communications at Freeman, where she played a lead role in the conception, development and implementation of the Go LIVE Together coalition.

Michelle is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, the world's leading professional association for corporate communications executives. She lives in Denver with her husband and two children.

Education

Wayne State University, BA, Management Information Systems

Yvonne Judice

Yvonne Judice is a top-performing communications leader skilled in relationship management, community relations, diversity and engagement and corporate partnerships. Since 2018, Yvonne has served as a project manager and consultant responsible for overseeing the creation, organization and execution of a variety of strategic initiatives and the development of communications deliverables for a diverse client base.

Yvonne started her career at McDonald’s on the Corporate Communications team. She was quickly promoted to lead Strategic Philanthropy on the Global Diversity, Inclusion & Strategic Engagement team. In this role, Yvonne was responsible for managing McDonald’s corporate contributions budget, Matching Gift program and disaster relief efforts. Additionally, she was responsible for aligning and maximizing the impact of McDonald’s strategic partnerships in Chicago and with organizations serving diverse communities. In this role, she also provided consultation and strategic support to divisional leaders to incorporate diversity into their business plans.

She left McDonald’s to work for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, but returned five years later to work for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) where she was responsible for identifying and cultivating strategic partnerships.

Yvonne has worked for several nonprofit organizations including Feeding America, where she managed a portfolio of over $15 million in existing accounts, and developed multi-year, multi- million-dollar partnerships with corporations. Additionally, she worked for FIRST®, an international nonprofit that inspires young people’s interest and participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

She lives in Oak Park, IL with her son, Maxwell.

Education

Northwestern University, MS, Integrated Marketing Communications
Howard University, BA, Journalism

Karen Kallas

Karen is a corporate communications executive with 25 years of proven success creating, executing and evaluating internal and external communications programs for large corporations. Karen was most recently the Vice President of Corporate Communications at Office Depot, where she led communications during the successful integration of Office Depot and OfficeMax.

Karen has extensive experience counseling leaders–from CEOs to front-line managers–to deliver effective communications that advance company goals and objectives. She is a seasoned strategist, writer and storyteller who excels at developing compelling messages that resonate with all audiences. Her communications work has spanned numerous industries, including manufacturing, retail, business-to-business and associations.

Karen has served as spokesperson for two Fortune 250 corporations where she successfully navigated a number of high-profile crises and communications challenges.

Education

Texas Woman’s University, MS, Counseling and Development
University of Northern Iowa, BA, Communications and Public Relations

Steven Kalashian

An innovative HR, Talent & Organizational Development leader, Steven brings over 20 years of experience in driving organizational effectiveness and cultivating high performing teams. With a passion for helping companies reach their potential through their people, Steven is recognized for his ability to develop leadership capabilities, create cultures of engagement and empowerment, and align workforce strategies with business objectives.

Throughout his career, Steven has partnered with C-suite executives and led numerous initiatives across HR ranging from Talent Acquisition, Talent & Organizational Development to HR Operations. With a focus on attracting, developing and retaining top talent Steven has designed and implemented performance management systems, succession planning programs, and learning and development curriculum, resulting in measurable improvements in employee satisfaction, retention and engagement.

Steven most recently was the VP of HR & Organizational Development at the New York Power Authority. There he was responsible for developing and aligning workforce initiatives with the organization’s strategic vision of a creating a clean energy future for NY State.

Prior to that, Steven was the Senior Vice President of HR at the New York City Economic Development Corporation during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration. There he was responsible for reimagining workforce design to ensure the organization had the capabilities to deliver large City redevelopment projects such as lower Manhattan redevelopment, Hudson Yards, Coney Island and High Line Park.

Education

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, B.S. Environmental Science

Certifications

Hogan Assessment Systems

Tony Larson

Tony believes that great design should turn heads while simplifying the ways we move through an increasingly complex world. Tony consistently pursues the rare synthesis of traditional art processes and cutting-edge digital technology as a means to elevating the experience level for every project he undertakes.

With an MFA in Studio Art and 10+ years of corporate design direction under his belt, Tony has fueled a vast body of work across double-digit disciplines from 360º brand identity packages to commercial video projects.

Tony's expertise lies in his ability to identify trends while generating new ideas around value-focused creative. He was brought on as Creative Director for the luxury eyewear brand SPY at a critical moment in the brand's 20-year history. Through a mixture of mining the company's DNA and creating partnerships with some of the most exciting designers and fashion influencers in pop culture, Tony handcrafted the SEE HAPPY campaign, which led to 13 straight quarters of YOY growth for the brand.

Tony's work has been featured in HOW Design Magazine and on ESPN.com and he is the recipient of the 2017 Karl and Beverly Benjamin Fellowship in Art from Claremont Graduate University.

Education

Claremont Graduate University, MFA
California Institute of the Arts, BFA

Katie Leas-Medrek

From requirements and design mockups to usability testing, inclusion of the human as part of the total system perspective is critical in the distribution of today's products. Katie is a well-rounded designer and developer, combining 10+ years of working experience in user experience (UX) and user-interface (UI) design with a technical background in software engineering.

Her expertise spans multiple industries including military, education, and healthcare through the likes of the United States Navy, American Institutes for Research, and Neighborhood Health Plan of RI. Katie’s technical and creative backgrounds bridge the gap in two commonly separated fields in technology.

Outside of design and development, Katie has passions in photography, travel, rock climbing, jiu jitsu, and emergency medicine.

Education

University of Vermont, BA in Computer Science, Art, Mathematics

Melissa Levine

Is it clear? Does it matter? Is it authentic? And does it connect? These are the questions Melissa asks of everything she conceives, develops, and writes. With an MFA in Fiction, a half-decade as a film reviewer, and 15+ years as a creative in marketing and advertising, Melissa is always searching for the beating heart of a story – and finding the most compelling way to tell it.

In marketing, Melissa specialized in tech – developing brand identities, campaigns, and content for giants and startups alike. She helped create the messaging for Apple’s launch of iPhone for business; helped develop the language for Adobe’s introduction of Creative Cloud; and conceived the messaging for Salesforce.org’s debut of Lionheart, their signature character.

Tone of voice is a specialty. Melissa created unique brand voices for Menlo, the security leader; Loxley Systems, the cannabis extraction innovator; and Qlik, the global data integration and analytics provider. Over seven years with Qlik, Melissa applied the brand voice to eBooks, microsites, and campaigns as the company introduced dizzyingly complex technology. In the process, she became an expert at simplicity – explaining data integration (among other things) in recognizable and even entertaining (!) language.

Whatever the industry or format, Melissa is guided by authenticity. She’s also obsessed with grammar, usage, and mechanics, so she apologizes in advance for fixing the commas in your copy. (She can’t help it.) She lives with her husband in Oakland, CA, and sometimes in the rural Northeast, where she once burst into tears after finding a ripe mango in November.

Education

Yale University, BA, English
Washington University in St. Louis, MFA, Fiction

Laura Stein Lindamood

Laura is an accomplished editor and writer with more than 20 years’ experience in strategic communications for nonprofits, journalism, and design. The thread running through all her work is a commitment to clear content and effective messaging.

With a background in journalism and visual communications, Laura got her start in newsrooms outside Chicago, designing layouts and editing photo stories to communicate ideas and emotions.

Currently, she works with clients including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and Forum One to present complex ideas to diverse audiences online. She led the communications team as Senior Director at Internews, an international nonprofit dedicated to journalism and free expression, developing and executing social media, email messaging, CRM, and web strategies. She writes and edits articles, speeches, reports, congressional testimony, fundraising appeals, blog posts, newsletters, and more. Laura’s work centers on helping mission-driven organizations translate their passions into accessible ideas. She believes communication is the backbone of any successful strategy, and works to deliver clear, compelling content that inspires action.

Education

Georgetown University, MA, Communication, Culture & Technology
Ohio University, BS, Journalism
Ohio University, BS, Visual Communications

Claire Lundin

A true passion for the consumer and the ability to deliver marketing and brand strategy that drives results. Claire reasons from multiple perspectives linking consumer insight to opportunity to form creative ideas that are distinctive and drive business performance.

She has more than 20 years of business and marketing experience working with premier brands and organizations. She began her career on Wall Street working at several investment banks but decided to pursue the opportunity to actualize her analysis and a connection to the consumer. She graduated from the Kellogg School of Management where she honed her marketing skills and landed her first marketing job at Kraft Foods.

Claire joined L’Oreal and spent 9 years leading and building premier brands in the beauty industry. More recently, Claire returned to her alma matter, the Kellogg School of Management, where she transformed the marketing organization from a service organization to a strategic partner. In July of 2016, she became a partner in The Unfinished Sentence, a boutique marketing strategy consulting firm. She has counseled and advised clients on brand and marketing strategy across a range of categories and sectors.

Education

Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, MBA, Finance and International Business
University of Michigan, BA, Economics and Communications

Jocelyn Marzec

Jocelyn draws on her expertise in cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychology to help individuals, teams and organizations perform at their best.

With Strategy Muse, Jocelyn has helped clients build more inclusive work environments by addressing unconscious bias, strengthening interpersonal relationships, and forming healthy communication practices.

Jocelyn is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and a Registered Art Therapist with the Art Therapy Credentialing Board. Before joining the Strategy Muse team, she worked in an acute care psychiatric hospital where she facilitated trauma-informed therapy with individuals and groups of all ages and wide range of mental health clinical presentations.

Jocelyn’s integrative approach combines Art Therapy interventions with cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and unconditional positive regard to help people communicate, regulate their emotions, and process them through language and creative expression.

Using an insights-based approach, Jocelyn guides her clients to increase self-awareness, positive self-esteem, empowerment, self-discovery, harmony, growth, and development of personal strengths.

Education

Columbia College Chicago, BFA
Adler University, MA, Counseling & Art Therapy

Holly Mattson

Holly believes that strategic internal communications are fundamental to a company’s success. When employees understand the business and their role in its mission; find on-ramps for greater connection and collaboration; and feel seen, heard, and supported, everyone wins. Employee engagement soars, employer brand shines, and customers experience the afterglow.

  In short: everything speaks.

  Holly comes to Strategy Muse from Commonwealth Financial Network, where she spent 16 years partnering with Human Resources and Marketing to shape and sustain an award-winning company culture. Early on, she established employee communications as a strategic function within HR and grew to serve as an internal communications coach, counsel, and thought partner companywide. Among her most impactful experiences, Holly co-led year-long engagement campaigns, served as editor-in-chief of the employee magazine, CommonGround, and was the lead communicator on the firm’s internal Covid response.

As a consultant, Holly prides herself on listening to and learning about a client’s unique challenges and opportunities before crafting strategies and tactics. It’s a bespoke, collaborative experience that draws on her background as a storyteller and researcher.   Holly is a personal development enthusiast, podcast fanatic, and public library supporter. Coastal New England will always be home.

Education

Boston University, MS, Journalism
Susquehanna University, BA, English

Karen McDaniel

Karen has over 15 years of experience leading change with people, processes and technologies that fuel engaged workforce cultures. While working at Intuit, a global software technology company, she learned the importance of customer empathy, user experience and design thinking. She developed several innovative resources and programs that reimagined the way leaders lead and the way employees learn.

While at Varian Medical Systems she took on responsibility for building a strategy that diversified the workforce and shifted the culture to be more inclusive, engaged and innovative. Karen’s experiences have positioned her to support organizations in transition; from building a strategy for large scale change initiatives to executing on programs with operational excellence.

Karen has a proven track record of collaboration, innovation and building strategic alignment. Her experience, education and character make her adept at meeting people where they are and creating an inspiring vision that leads them through change.

Education

San Jose State University, BS, Business Administration – Marketing

Certifications

Brain Based Coaching, NeuroLeadership Institute
Diversity & Inclusion for HR Professionals, Cornell University
Organizational Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania (in progress)

Michelle Mercer

Michelle loves working with business leaders to tell stories that resonate with their employees, customers and partners. She writes a wide range of content that is strategic and relatable. Michelle is curious and perceptive and is skilled at finding the story and telling it in a human voice.

Michelle began her career in broadcasting as a local journalist and music host for the NPR affiliate in Indianapolis before working in the corporate programming department for Emmis Communications where she helped interpret research studies and develop innovative radio brands in major markets. After working as a music director in Boston for another radio corporation, Michelle was tapped by Emmis to become the music director of KPWR-FM in Los Angeles, a groundbreaking hip hop station. She was promoted to program director a few years later and oversaw a large team of creative people and served as an industry and media spokesperson for the radio station.

Michelle relocated to the Pacific Northwest where she embarked on a new career as a freelance writer and marketing consultant. She has experience working in many diverse industries including education, nonprofit, real estate, recruitment, outdoor recreation, tourism, wellness, software and consumer products.

As a marketing consultant in both B2B and B2C industries, Michelle has helped companies define their strategies and voice, and create engaging content that builds reputation, loyalty and thought leadership.

Michelle lives in Bend, Oregon with her two children.

Education

Butler University, BA, Journalism

Whit Missildine

Whit has devoted his career to two primary questions: What are the forces that motivate human behavior change? How can we enhance the process to create a better workforce and better society?

Whit specializes in behavior change, workplace cognition and accelerated innovation through experiential learning. He has led research, design and implementation efforts on numerous immersive learning engagements and developed a suite of simulation-based, hands-on and virtual world products across a variety sectors, including mining, project management, finance, and education. He has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journal publications and presented findings at international conferences on learning experience design, simulation-based training, accelerated learning and disruptive innovation.

In a parallel life, Whit is the creator and producer of the popular podcast This Is Actually Happening, featuring uncanny, extraordinary true stories of events that have dramatically altered the lives of ordinary people. The show was ranked #22 in Best Factual Podcast 2016 by the Atlantic and is part of the award-winning podcast network, Wondery.

Whit also served as a Board Chair for Rainforest Connection, a non-profit that creates real-time logging detection systems, pinpointing deforestation activity and providing open access data to aid illegal logging interventions.

This unique blend of cognitive science, organizational change, activism and creative pursuits has allowed Whit to explore a wide spectrum of human behavior in order to better understand how we learn, change and evolve as we confront an increasingly complex world.

Education

CUNY Graduate Center, PhD, Social-Personality Psychology
Sarah Lawrence College, BA, Liberal Arts

Josh Misthal

Josh has built his career as a creative director while immersed in fast-paced environments and collaborating with some of the largest marketers and established advertising agencies in the world, both on strategic and creative levels. Specializing in information design and branding, over the past 13 years he’s worked with global ad agencies, such as McCann New York, UM, FCB and KBS, as well as high-profile brands, including Bloomberg, L’Oreal, The United States Tennis Association and CBS. He’s also worked extensively in the realm of agency business development, contributing to account wins for brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft and Sony.

His experience in advertising jumps around the path a bit, never really in a straight line. But because he’s worn the proverbial hat over several disciplines, Josh has developed a unique perspective when it comes to crafting work that not only looks good, but also stays true to the message. This hybrid mindset lets him think about design and content from both practical and creative angles. His dual skill set involves a mix of being able to visualize and execute concepts from beginning to end, while constantly applying a broader lens of strategic thinking and project management to make sure client objectives are met.

In addition to design, Josh retains experience in strategy, copywriting, production, project management and media planning.

When he’s not at his computer, you can catch him traveling the world (he’s set foot on all 7 continents), exploring the great state of Colorado or obsessively consuming music.

Education

Boston University, Bachelor of Science, Communications

Meredith Moore

Meredith Moore loves to tell a good story. Whether she is writing for a C-suite executive or helping a non-profit explain their impact, her counsel and perspective help give clients the courage to have an impact both in and outside of corporate America.

Meredith has successfully supported senior leaders at McDonald’s, 3M and Comcast Cable to navigate the uncharted territory of addressing the challenges for women at work. 

Early in her career, Meredith was tasked with supporting Mr. Don Thompson during his historic rise to be the first African American CEO of McDonald’s Corporation. There she was also responsible for launching the company’s global philanthropy program and strategic partnerships. While traveling the world for McDonald’s Global Women’s Initiative, she began to connect her passion for motivating other women to achieve their goals and truly understanding the global trends and frustrations preventing women from advancing to management.

In 2012, Meredith’s story of becoming the youngest Director in McDonald's history was featured in the national bestseller Successful Women Think Differently.

As her journey in enhancing corporate diversity continued, Meredith began to experience the same challenges she was tasked with solving. This prompted her to earn her executive coaching certification and launch a consultancy focused on advancing women in the workplace.

Today Meredith consults with leaders on how to use communications to attract, retain and develop high achieving women. As a trained career coach, she promotes education, community engagement, and mentoring; because Meredith knows that the great work of an organization hinges on the individuals working within. When she’s not consulting with clients, Meredith shares her wisdom can subscribe to the Getting Unstuck with Meredith Moore Crosby podcast for actionable time management and leadership lessons to move forward.

Education

Northwestern University, MS, Managerial Communications
Howard University, BA, Communications and PR

Certifications

Insight Discovery ® Licensed Practitioner
Personal Development Coach, The CaPP Institute

Skye Moret

Skye specializes in data visualization and design strategy. With an MFA in Information Design and Visualization and a decade of experience in the sciences, Skye is well-versed in organizing complex data and discovering meaningful ways for people to engage with it.

Skye loves to explore and communicate different topics through data-driven design and visual storytelling. Her award-winning design work has been featured in Popular Science magazine and her scientific and journalism work can be found in publications ranging from Science to Slate to Green Teacher magazine.

Before formally diving into the professional world of data and design, Skye sailed 80,000+ miles on the high seas teaching and studying marine science. Through sharing her pioneering research on ocean pollution and her experience working for the U.S. Antarctic Program, Skye realized the surprising power of visualization in encouraging curiosity, insight, empathy, and interaction.

In 2016, Skye was a Visual Reporting Fellow for the GroundTruth Project, an international journalism organization focusing on narrative storytelling across media platforms. She continues to teach data visualization and communication at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Education

Northeastern University, MFA, Information Design and Visualization
Oregon State University, BS, Biology

Alison Ohlhoff

Passionate about helping organizations foster better connections between their employees and the bigger picture, Alison creates clear and compelling communications that inspire target audiences, manage change and drive results. She’s a seasoned communicator who has specialized in employee, HR and executive communications for nearly two decades.

In more than 10 years as a consultant, she has served as a trusted advisor to several longstanding clients – including AkzoNobel, PepsiCo, Clorox, Univar and Hyatt – who count on her to deliver strategic, high-quality work that advances their business objectives.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Alison was the manager of employee communications for PepsiCo’s Quaker/Tropicana/Gatorade division, where she introduced key changes that increased employee engagement and connectedness to the division’s strategy. Before PepsiCo, Alison was a senior specialist on Clorox’s corporate communications team, responsible for the corporate website, company intranet and quarterly employee publication, in addition to spearheading communications to non-desk production employees.

Alison is active in her local community as a youth coach and non-profit board member.

Education

Northwestern University, BS, Communication Studies

David Polmer

David has a knack for connecting with clients, helping them craft and tell the story of who they are, who they want to be, and why it matters. He mixes analytical thinking with a creative design approach, often resulting in unexpected solutions that grab attention and, most importantly, produce results.

As the head of U.S. Cellular’s Executive Communications function, David helped leaders shape and share the company’s vision, mold the corporate culture, and redefine its brand. While there, David led the transformation of the Communications function to create a strategic platform for CEO and executive team, ensuring overall alignment of messaging through strategic communications plans and experiential events.

His communication background includes corporate and executive communications, leadership development, employee engagement, public relations and crisis communications.

A creative and compelling writer, David has also contributed to various print and online publications including the Chicago Sun-Times, BET.com and The Sporting News. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and on MSNBC.com.

Education

Washington University in St. Louis, BA, English Literature

Jessica Powers, MA

Jessica has more than 15 years experience helping organizations make meaningful and sustainable change. She works with leaders and organizations to create cultures of connection, collaboration, high performance, and belonging by bringing deep inquiry and progressive people practices to her clients.

With a background in organizational psychology, Jessica helps clients understand and navigate the emotional and psychological landscape for creating change and growth at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Her experience spans global organizations and startups across many industries, including media, technology, entertainment, energy, international development, and financial services.

Creating workplaces in which people are thriving, connecting, and belonging matters to Jessica deeply. Jessica translates her passion into creating impactful leadership development programs. In this capacity, she’s designed and conducted organizational assessments that led to open dialogue and large-scale change. She’s facilitated workshops and off-sites with teams, guiding leaders to root into their purpose, navigate conflict, improve collaboration, and understand how to lead high performance.

For more than a decade, Jessica has led and participated in executive women’s leadership programs dedicated to empowering women. She serves as a coach for Chief and TED Fellows.

Before entering the leadership development field and starting her practice, Jessica worked in film and music production, and as a fundraiser and event producer for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Education

Teachers College, Columbia University, MA in Organizational Psychology
Oberlin College, BA in Sociology
The Mountain School of Milton Academy, student of humanities
Interdependence Project, Meditation Teacher Training

Certifications

Korn Ferry Voices 360

Anthony Quach

Anthony is a Portland-based creative director passionate about helping people live happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives through human-centered design thinking. He touts himself as a co-creator—with clients and business partners—who strives to conceive and implement smart and compelling immersive brand experiences.

Anthony has delivered national campaigns that garnered millions of impressions from strategic brand engagements to seamless digital experiences. He has led and built multi-disciplinary creative teams that serve across many industries.

Key clients include Google, Intel, Salesforce, Mazda, Alaska Airlines, Lululemon, Finish Line, and Ruthʼs Chris.

Education

Purdue University, BS, Visual Communications Design, Marketing & Communication

Liz Roch

Building on more than 20 years of experience in communications, Liz works to find the right mix between strategy, message and tools to support change, create active engagement, generate understanding and ultimately build commitment to the course a company and its leaders are charting.

Liz most recently served as the divisional vice president-executive communications and events at Walgreens. As the company navigated a significant transition from traditional pharmacy retailer into global healthcare company, she and her team developed new messaging and communications platforms, helped introduce new cultural initiatives and worked along with business units to develop major change efforts to drive focus to customer needs, service and performance. Through her eight years at the company, Liz provided advice, counsel and communications support through mergers, significant leadership turnover, cultural change and evolution, major business disruption, as well as business development.

Prior to joining Walgreens, Liz spent nearly 15 years at United Airlines, leading the communications team through a complex and challenging business environment, finishing her career at the company as the managing director-internal communications. At United, Liz was responsible for the strategy and execution of United’s corporate-wide employee, operations, customer experience, human resources and benefits communications. Along with other leaders from United’s Corporate Affairs, she planned and led United’s communications responses to September 11, bankruptcy, major product launches, and the countless operational issues that were the drumbeat of communications at United.

Education

Northwestern University, BS, Medill School of Journalism

Phyllis Roteman, HCS

For over 20 years, Phyllis has helped top companies achieve sustainable business results by aligning culture, people and strategy. Her sweet spots are organizational change, executive coaching, leadership development, team dynamics and facilitation. She’s been called a chameleon because of her unique ability to build relationships and earn credibility with C-level leaders to front-line employees across a variety of industries and functions.

Working in sales while pursuing her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Pittsburgh helped Phyllis practice and fine-tune her natural observation, listening, questioning and story-telling skills. She now applies these skills in her consulting practice to get to the root of issues, bring clarity to complex problems, identify priorities and gain buy-in from stakeholders.

Phyllis began her consulting career at Development Dimensions International (DDI), where she designed and led the execution of customized human capital and culture change solutions for global companies.

After DDI, she left to build her own successful consulting business from the ground up. Clients have included fast-growing tech companies to corporations including Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, Pepsico, Farmers Insurance, Optum, Maxim Integrated and Shaw Industries.

Education

University of Miami, MBA
University of Pittsburgh, BA, Writing
Stanford d.school bootcamp (design thinking)
Duquesne University, coursework in Corporate Communications

Certifications

Human Capital Strategist (HCS) designation from the Human Capital Institute
ASTD e-learning certificate
The Intelligent Leader coaching certification
DDI-certified facilitator and job analyst
Korn Ferry certifications
Organizational Anthropology certificate from University of Pennsylvania (in progress)

Michael Rudnick

Michael has more than two decades of experience helping companies create and use the intranet, digital workplace and Microsoft technology to transform employee communications and improve the employee experience.

A recognized expert on intranets and emerging digital communications, Michael has authored many articles and industry talks on using the Microsoft 365 platform to revolutionize the employee communications and drive transformation, collaboration, and engagement.

Previously Michael led the employee portal practice for a decade at Willis Towers Watson, and has held senior management roles – providing counsel on intranets and digital employee and HR communications – with Logical Design Solutions, Groundswell and Xceed.

Michael founded the world’s first intranet consultancy, Cognitive Communications, and created the very first intranets for Xerox, McGraw-Hill Companies, IBM, Seagram, Corning and Apple in the 1990s. His focus has been exclusively on the Microsoft 365 platform since its launch in 2013, and has included clients such AutoDesk, eClinical Solutions, Goldman Sacks, J&J, Johnson Controls, Prudential, Quest Diagnostics, and Sempra Energy.

Michael is active on industry Boards, serving as Co-Managing Editor of IHRIM’s Workforce Solutions Review, past President of the Communication Leadership Exchange (formerly CCM), and spent many years on the International Board of IABC.

Outside of work Michael is an active racing sailor, was a race official for the sailing competition at the 1996 Olympic Games, and is President of the LISOT Sailing Foundation, the largest independent, non-profit, youth sailing team in the US.

Education

Ithaca College, BA, History and Media

Bob Rybarczyk

Seasoned communicator Bob Rybarczyk brings with him more than 25 years of experience as a writer, strategist and marketer. He has worked with a variety of clients on everything from executive speeches and corporate narratives to feature stories and messaging platforms. He is an expert in developing content that is human and friendly, but also does the heavy lifting of delivering key messages and building connections with important audiences. His clients have included multinational companies as well as smaller, regional ones, and his work has spanned industries such as finance, transportation, technology services, training, agriculture, consumer goods and more.

Prior to joining Strategy Muse, Bob spent nearly 15 years at international public relations agency Weber Shandwick. As a senior vice president, he developed and managed a wide variety of successful, award-winning campaigns for brands such as Verizon, Bank of America, Bud Light, Mobil 1, Riot Games, Hardee’s, MasterCard, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Harrah’s.

He has also been a marketing director at a software developer; served as a copywriter at a creative agency; and worked in media as a journalist, feature columnist and broadcaster.

A lifelong St. Louis resident, he is a die-hard Cardinals fan and still has a hard time believing the Blues won a Stanley Cup.

Education

University of Missouri, BA, Journalism

Amanda Samuels

Amanda Samuels is a business leader with more than 25 years of corporate, agency and consulting experience advising organizations on communications and marketing strategies that drive business results.

Before joining Strategy Muse, Amanda served as Chief Communications and Marketing Officer for Rackspace Technology, a global technology services company with over 120,000 clients around the world. She led the brand and reputation strategy as the company accelerated transformation and expanded its global footprint. She and her team successfully executed communications for two acquisitions and the company’s return to the public markets (IPO).

Previously, she was Chief Communications Officer (CCO) for the Kellogg School of Management, one of world’s premier business schools. She led a multi-year brand and reputation strategy as the school implemented a successful plan for transformation which encompassed completion of a $350 million capital campaign, construction and opening of a 415,000 square foot global hub, implementation of significant organizational change, launch of new brand positioning, and global expansion in Asia. During her tenure, the school achieved double digit increases in key business and reputation metrics.

Amanda also was Managing Director, Internal Communications for United Airlines prior to and during the $3 billion merger and integration with Continental Airlines. She led global enterprise employee communications, engaging more than 40,000 employees to achieve industry-leading operational performance as measured by DOT rankings. She was appointed as part of the senior management team that led integration planning for the post-merger combined airline.

As a consultant, Amanda has worked with a number of Global Fortune 500 clients to drive a range of successful business transformation and organizational initiatives, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, brand and strategy implementations, leadership transitions, and restructurings.

Amanda is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and a non-profit board director for Under the Same Sky.

Education

Michigan State University, BA
Certificate, Advanced Management Program, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Sarah Savella

Sarah Savella has helped some of the world's leading companies connect people with their organizations to drive business strategy and achieve exceptional results.

Working as a consultant and coach, Sarah brings change management, talent strategy, and organizational development expertise to Strategy Muse’s clients.

Prior to joining the Strategy Muse team, Sarah was the Senior Director of People and Organizational Development at OnDeck, a global online small business lending company. As a member of the People Operations Leadership Team, she led the development of OnDeck’s talent strategy and built the firm’s leadership capability through leadership coaching, optimizing the potential of new and experienced managers, and working with the management team on leadership alignment, culture and executive development.

Earlier in her career, Sarah served as a Vice President and Managing Consultant at Ketchum Change. Through effective change management, internal communications, employee engagement, organizational learning and development, and employer branding solutions, Sarah advised clients through large-scale change and high-impact transformation. Leading consulting teams, she helped organizations communicate and drive culture during M&A; design and execute business transitions; develop new performance and development strategies; create and market employer brands/EVPs; and launch storytelling campaigns to rally employees through change.

Education

New York University, MA, Industrial/ Organizational Psychology
Emory University, BA, Psychology

Certifications

Executive Coaching Certificate, Baruch College Zicklin School of Business
International Coach Federation, ACC
Assessments & Learning Certifications: DiSC, Workplace Big 5, Emotional Intelligence, Fierce Conversations, Situational Leadership, and Lateral Thinking.)

Julie Schumacher

Julie is a writer with more than a decade of experience designing messaging that communicates story, context, and intention. With a background in education, she’s uniquely suited to translate even the most complex topic into resonant writing that is compelling, digestible and targeted for an intended audience.

She’s collaborated on brand voice and story development, copy and content for clients including local small businesses, national non-profits, international companies, as well as award-winning interpretive content for museums, aquaria, nature centers and state parks. Working directly with internal stakeholders or partnering with designers, developers and strategists, she’s supported a diverse range of clients including LexisNexis, Gran Acuario Mazatlán, Decathlon, WBEZ, Forest Preserves of Cook County, Aparium Hotel Group and more.

Prior to launching her writing studio and joining Strategy Muse, Julie taught history, civics and journalism at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles and Francis W. Parker in Chicago. Serving as an advisor to both students and teachers, developing interdisciplinary programs and curricula, chaperoning trips that spanned the globe and focusing intently on the lived experience of students led to recognition ranging from a student-voted Senior Tribute Award to a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. She is also published on the social and emotional lives of middle schoolers.

Julie lives in Oak Park, Illinois with her family. She is an active community volunteer and enjoys traveling, baking and cheering on her daughter’s soccer team.

Education

Harvard Graduate School of Education, Ed.M.
Brown University, BA, History and American Civilization

Rishi Seth

With over two decades of art direction and graphic design experience, Rishi has a passion for creating attention-grabbing designs that inform, engage and inspire.

Rishi comes to Strategy Muse after working with Fortune 250 companies, such as EDS Corporation and Jacobs Engineering. Most recently, he served as Art Director for McKesson’s Health Mart brand. In addition to this in-house experience, he has worked as a creative director and graphic designer in book publishing and full-service advertising agencies, including Witherspoon Communications, one of the top ad agencies in the Southwest. While there, he created award-winning work for clients that included BNSF Railway, Pier 1 Imports, TCU, and the Van Cliburn Competition.

Rishi’s work has been recognized by the ADDYs awards for creative advertising, published in numerous design books, and featured in numerous industry exhibitions, including: the TOPS creative show (Dallas), Dallas Society of Visual Communications, Print Regional Design Annuals, AIGA Design Show, Type Directors Club Exhibition, Print Magazine, and Idea Magazine (Japan).

When not working on tight deadlines, Rishi enjoys creating exhibition materials for Rosenberg & Co., an art gallery in New York City.

Education

Carnegie Mellon University, BFA, Graphic Design

Certification

Texas A&M University, Certificate of Completion, Web Design Professional

Nicholas Skyles

Nick uses creative thinking, strategic problem solving, and graphic design to help the world's biggest brands. He believes in the power of big ideas and simple solutions, working to Gillian Welch music, the importance of authenticity, and that comedians are excellent teachers of design.

Nick designs for identity, print, video, web, and environmental/signage. He has had the pleasure of being part of some amazing experiences throughout his career. He has studied under Michael Bierut at Pentagram, flown around the world with Coca-Cola's innovation team, turned dinner plates into art during a night out with James Victore, helped McDonald's executive chef create and sample new menu items, filmed with Sundance award-winning director Douglas Keeve, and even managed to land some bylines in The New York Times.

Born and raised in Missouri, Nick’s career in design started around 1997 when he taught himself HTML and published an online music magazine. He operated a local record label, wrote and recorded music, and helped to encourage young, experimental musicians to record and release their work. His love of the creative process led Nick to seek a formal education in Design and Art.

Nick has spent the past 15 years in New York City where he has worked for Pentagram, Siegel+Gale, Interbrand, Emeht, Redscout, and Goat&Bear.

During the course of his career, Nick has worked with a wide range of local, national, and global clients including: The New York Times, Sesame Workshop, Brooklyn Law School, United Airlines, Chipotle, Washington Metro Transportation Authority, Coca-Cola, Polaroid, Levi Strauss & Co., Hewlett Packard, SAP, Converse and Kind Snacks.

Education

Graduate Certificate, Portfolio Center, Atlanta
Drury University, BA, Design Art

Fully Teasdale

Fully’s 25 years of experience across Fortune 25 enterprises, venture-backed SaaS companies, and digital agencies allow her to apply a general management mentality while inspiring new possibilities at the intersection of marketing communications, storytelling, and technology. With deep expertise across AI and machine learning, healthcare, ag tech, and HR tech, Fully finds inventive, authentic ways to connect with stakeholders.

Before joining Strategy Muse, Fully was Executive Director of Prepare.ai, a nationally-recognized AI-advocacy organization, where she convened diverse individuals and organizations through programming on AI and other Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. Prior to running Prepare.ai, Fully led marketing and communications for Capacity, an AI-powered support automation platform that centralizes level-zero support for employees and customers, where she led the company from seed stage through Series B.

Fully held leadership positions in the newly created member experience team at Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager at the time, where she worked to instill a customer-first, human-centered approach to communications with their 80 million members. Her last role at the company was Senior Director of Digital Communications, where she oversaw all digital and print communications for the entire member population.

Much of Fully's career has been dedicated to enriching the user experience through storytelling. She led content development at Snapfish, where she was a member of the team that developed the company's branding structure after the HP acquisition.

With the ability to flex across technical, business, and creative forums, Fully is known as a digital changemaker and master networker who inspires, motivates, and collaborates effectively with cross-functional teams. She values cultures rooted in high integrity, relationship building, goal-oriented collaboration, and impeccable follow-through.

Fully lives in St. Louis with her family. Engaged in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, Fully is a charter member of the STL GeoFutures Advisory Committee, a group of 30 high-profile civic and business leaders selected to create a 10-year strategic plan to increase geospatial activity in the region. Outside of work, Fully enjoys listening to EDM created by her 11-year-old in GarageBand and giving silly haircuts to her identical 9-year-old twins so their teachers can tell them apart.

Education

Washington University in St. Louis, BA, English & Art History

Kate Uhry

Seasoned content strategist, marketing expert, project manager and consultant Kate Uhry has been around long enough to remember using fax broadcasting as a way to entice people into renewing their magazine subscriptions. These days, she has over 25 years of experience in traditional and digital marketing, project management, SEO, content writing, and CRM, CMS and marketing automation systems. Her clients have ranged in size from global financial institutions, nationally recognized digital marketing agencies, as well as many smaller start-up businesses.  Kate approaches her clients’ goals with a results-focused, high level of organization and planning. She creates roadmaps based on data-driven decisions and proven steps for success, while respecting the individual approaches and nuances of each company’s culture. A strong writer with a wicked sense of humor, her forte is writing promotional content, from compelling emails, website copy, social media posts and keyword-driven landing pages. She is particularly proud to have been tapped to ghostwrite B2B blogs for several prominent websites.  Her long and varied career includes a number of years as a Marketing Manager in various industries, marketing consulting work at SmartBug Media, Inbound Back Office and Velaku, a number of years as a professional dog-walker, and early experience working as a Circulation Director for controlled circulation magazines.  Based on the gold coast of Connecticut, an ideal day for Kate would include a walk on the beach with a dog leash in one hand and espresso in the other. She has also been acting as the President of her condominium board for the past five years.

Education

University of Connecticut, MBA Marketing and Management
Tufts University, BA English Literature

Certifications

HubSpot Certifications (Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Advanced Social Media Strategy, Frictionless Sales, Inbound Marketing, Growth-Driven Design Agency)
Coursera (Introduction to SEO, Engagement & Nurture Marketing Strategies, Content Strategy for Professionals, Wharton - Introduction to Marketing)

Lauren Vajda

Careful listening. Thorough exploration. And compelling visual articulation. For 15+ years, Lauren has worked that process with clients in nearly every sector, from Fortune 500s to academia, nonprofits, and finance. Along the way, the most important thing has always been the relationship. Lauren sinks in deep with her clients, treating their organizations as her own, flexing as they grow, and helping them connect in all the ways that count. For Lauren, client relationships last years and span evolutions in strategy, brand, and execution.

Whether in-house, in-agency, or at the helm of her own firm, Lauren has specialized in design solutions for branding, websites, and corporate communications. She works from the inside out, beginning with identity and keeping it at the heart of everything she creates. Among Lauren’s many strengths is her ability to thread the needle between graciously accepting feedback and gently sharing opinions to push toward the best outcome. Clients know they can come to Lauren with any challenge and be heard with compassion, and they trust that she will protect their long-term goals.

Lauren has worked with many high-profile clients, including Adobe; Fidelity Investments and Liberty Mutual; MIT, Harvard, and Columbia Universities; HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers; Planned Parenthood and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Above all, she’s an enthusiastic learner and percolator, genuinely intrigued by most of what life has to offer. Fortunately, she gets to fulfill her curiosity through the lens of design. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two sons and is often found hiking, hopelessly attempting to become the next Star Baker, or escaping into a good book (or three).

Education

Tyler School of Art and Architecture - Temple University, BFA, Graphic Design and Art History

Jaime Vazquez

Jaime Vázquez has spent his career helping people tell stories and making complicated concepts easy. He helps Strategy Muse’s clients communicate big ideas—developing and executing on brand strategies, structuring communications to connect with stakeholders, and capturing an organization’s unique voice.

Jaime got his start as a writer and editor for Oprah.com, where he learned to use an empathy-based approach for content strategy, information architecture and writing.

Most recently, Jaime worked with the Talent & Development team at AbbVie Pharmaceutical to articulate and curate the messaging for “Learn Develop Perform,” a program dedicated to supporting employees as they advance their careers, and helping managers lead effectively. Jaime helped craft the partner microsite used by AbbVie’s 47,000 employees. Across articles, webinars, podcasts, and exclusive video interviews, the Learn Develop Perform program has been instrumental in helping AbbVie employees build new skills, set and reach new goals, and implement research-driven management practices.

Jaime is also a long-time partner of Northwest Evaluation (NWEA), makers of the MAP® GrowthTM adaptive testing for K-12 students. Through his work with the Professional Learning team, he helps craft the Assessment Literacy and Formative Assessment workshops delivered to teachers around the world. He’s currently working on “The Rock Star Project,” where he analyzes the habits and traditions of successful music artists to inform, improve, and support the performance aspects of virtual presentations.

Jaime has worked in a variety of industries, including construction, hospitality, information security, educational technology, and professional development. He is most at home when he’s being an effective thought partner, and he’s passionate about the most important aspect of writing: listening.

Education

University of Michigan, BA, American Culture

Amy Walsh

Amy is a business communications leader with Fortune 100 experience in consumer products, real estate, financial services, insurance, and the law. A former journalist, she is a quick study who brings a sure hand and clear voice to your communications strategies and messages.

Amy always puts the audience first, striving for empathy and clarity, while partnering with you to articulate and achieve your goals. She is known for her sharp organizational skills, deft touch as a writer, and the ability to synthesize complex ideas into compelling packages. Amy specializes in change communications, including technology rollouts, vision launches, and cultural and behavioral shifts.

Her professional experience includes leading global internal communications and change programs at PepsiCo and contributing to executive, employee and marketing communications at Baker & McKenzie, Aon, and Arthur Andersen. Her consulting clients include PepsiCo, Kimberly Clark, Jones Lang LaSalle, and McKesson.

A longtime resident of Chicago, Amy lives with her wife in St. Petersburg, Florida. They volunteer with progressive organizations and brake for tiki bars and music festivals.

Education

University of South Florida, BA, Mass Communications – Editorial (Journalism)

Timothy Weidelman

Timothy is a Chicago based Motion Designer and Art Director with 10+ years of experience in the video production industry.

Timothy has worked with such clients as Google, McDonalds, Gatorade, Pepsi, Exelon, and Deloitte helping to realize their stories in a host of unique styles and across an array of mediums from large live shows, to online explainers, and interactive social experiences.

Education

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BFA, Video Post Production and Animation

Jen Welty

Jen draws on her experience in leadership development, group dynamics, and adult learning to help individuals and organizations maximize their potential within an inclusive environment. As a coach, she works with leaders to draw upon their authentic abilities to find meaning in their work and impact their teams and organizations.

Before joining Strategy Muse, Jen was Vice President of Global Talent Management and Inclusion and Diversity for PVH, one of the largest global apparel companies. In this role, Jen led the design and implementation of a worldwide Inclusion and Diversity strategy, the launch of an employee engagement and action-planning process, and a new way to conduct performance management using a rating-less system. During Jen’s tenure, the organization was recognized for their perfect score on the CEI index and as one of Fortune’s top diversity companies.

Jen also worked at BNP Paribas as the Managing Director of Talent Management and Leadership Development. In this role, she was responsible for the design and implementation of creative talent and learning interventions as well as coaching numerous business leaders on personal effectiveness and team integration issues.

A skilled group facilitator who specializes in aligning employees with organizational objectives, Jen began her career at Stromberg Consulting, a change management and workplace communication firm based in New York. While at Stromberg, Jen worked with clients such as American Express, Chase, Western Union, Monster.com, Microsoft, FedEx, 7-Eleven, Nokia Siemens Networks, Kodak, Wyeth, United Technologies and Walt Disney.

Education

NYU, MA, Industrial & Organizational Psychology
Stonybrook University, BA, Psychology
University of Massachusetts, BA, Classical Voice Performance

Certifications

Organizational Development Certificate, Georgetown University
Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation (ICF)
Certified Coach, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC)
Myers Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI), the Hogan Suite, Social Styles and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) 360-degree feedback tools.

Becky Zerman

Becky has deep communication expertise across a variety of audiences and industries. She approaches clients with an ear to listen first and understand their unique challenges. Skilled in writing, creative management and client service, Becky is adept at driving the right message to the right audience at the right time.

She began her career at international public relations agency FleishmanHillard, where she managed communication programs for clients such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, WalMart, Papa John’s, and the St. Louis Cardinals. She then deepened her corporate marketing experience managing teams and integrated marketing programs in senior manager roles at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Express Scripts (owned by Cigna).

With an innate curiosity, Becky pursued her master’s degree while working full-time and caring for her first child at home. She is constantly reading, listening and working to fulfill her quest for self-improvement and learning.

Becky has more than 18 years of experience in industries such as healthcare, car rental, consumer packaged goods, professional services, insurance, quick service restaurants, nonprofits and sports.

A St. Louis native, Becky lives with her husband, son and fur baby.

Education

Drury University, MA Communications
Truman State University, BA Communications