MSI is lucky to have 26 hard-working, fun-loving, creative and smart people making magic happen for our clients. Learn more about all of them here.

Dianne Dela Rosa

Digital

As MSI’s digital coordinator, Dianne keeps us ahead of the ever-changing landscape of digital advertising. She holds degrees in management and marketing from the University of Alaska Anchorage and is the Vice President of Communications for the American Marketing Association Alaska Chapter. When she’s not crunching SEM numbers, Dianne travels internationally and is a freelance makeup artist.

Laurie Fagnani

President

Laurie founded MSI Communications in 1995 with one client and exactly zero employees. Over two decades, she built her agency into the state’s leader in creative advertising and exceptional account services, representing both Alaskan-owned companies and multi-national corporations doing business in the state.

Laurie pioneered team-building strategies that deliver superior results faster and more cost-effectively than anyone else in the business. Under her leadership, MSI Communications has become the public voice for some of the state’s largest employers and most-visible brand names, including Alaska Airlines.

Pamela Gebert

Account Coordinator

Born and raised in Alaska, Pamela is a gardener, hiker, cross-country runner and skier. She brings a vibrant background of world and professional experience to MSI, with a resume spanning from medical service in the U.S. Army to real estate and retail store management – and now, account coordinator! She values time spent with family, especially cooking and sharing meals.

Jim Coe

Vice President

Jim Coe is an award-winning creative director who has shaped the public imaging of corporations that are household names. His work appears regularly on television/radio and in print in the Last Frontier, the Lower 48, Europe and Asia. Jim oversees all creative work produced by MSI, where he supervises the best writing, design and video/radio team in the state.

A longtime Alaskan, Jim has extensive knowledge of the industries that are critical to Alaska’s economy, including oil and gas, transportation, mining, healthcare and Native corporations. He's also a heck of an artist. Not only does he paint, he builds things from wood. Like kayaks. From scratch. Yeah. A proud papa, he's got three daughters.

Kris Miller

Vice President

Kris brings her high energy and unwavering loyalty to forge strong relationships with our biggest clients. Her background in tourism, marketing and sales allows her to plan strategically and keep track of hundreds of details. Nothing makes her happier than hearing “I love it” from a client. She strives to hit every project out of the park, from a single ad placement to year-long marketing plans.

Kris has a bachelor’s degree in communications and English from the University of Minnesota. In true Kris fashion, she starts every day with an early morning (very, very early) burst of physical activity. Be it a run on the trails, teaching spin class or hitting the pool, she proudly wears the nickname “Energizer Bunny.” Although, we all know it's her titles "mom" and "wife" that give her true happiness.

Amy Clifford

Chief Financial Officer, Contract Manager

Amy was just a newborn in South Anchorage when the great quake hit Alaska. She grew up on family stories about that day, such as when her father made a dash for the breaker box to shut off the power only to get into a wrestling match with the refrigerator bouncing across the kitchen floor.

After getting her bachelor’s degree from University of Puget Sound, Amy returned home to Anchorage and began a career in human resources. Along the way, she got married and had two daughters. Then she met an inspirational fellow Alaskan named Laurie Fagnani who had started her own advertising agency. For the last 12 years, Amy has been the numbers genius managing MSI’s finances, from reporting to general accounting, all contracts, employee benefits and more. She calls herself an “earthquake baby.” We call her steady as a rock.

Lana Johnson

Senior Vice President

Lana Johnson is one of the most-respected communications experts in the state. An experienced journalist, she is the former editor of the Anchorage Times. At the time, she was one of only seven women managing editors in the nation.

With her extensive knowledge of Alaska issues, Lana is a valuable mentor to all our employees on virtually every account. She is also a published author, an executive board member of Girdwood 2020 and Girdwood Inc., and a board member of the Alaska Council for Economic Education.

Abbey Collins

Creative Copywriter

Abbey loves writing, regardless of genre or subject matter. She's a journalism school graduate who spent most of her 20s reporting, producing and hosting news for public radio stations in Alaska.

You may catch her staring out the windows of the MSI office while she daydreams of being on top of mountains in Chugach State Park. Abbey’s perfect day involves sore feet, a summit beer above 5,000 ft., and dehydrated dinner at a backcountry campsite. She always has her camera with her, and occasionally stays up way too late on work nights to catch the northern lights.

Abbey is originally from the Boston area, but doesn’t have the accent. She doesn't have strong feelings about the Oxford comma.

Mariah DeJesus-Remaklus

Digital Media Coordinator

Mariah brought her savvy social media skills to MSI as our new Digital Media Coordinator. If you need to post it, like it, tweet it or link it, she’s got the plan and the skills to do it with ease. Always keeping her eye on the future, her new company-wide TL;DR Social e-newsletter keeps us all on the bleeding edge of the latest in social communication and marketing.

Mariah earned a bachelor’s in Journalism and Public Communications with a concentration in digital media at UAA, and she enjoyed UAA so much, she stayed on to do their social media work. The skills she learned at UAA both as a student, a writer at the university newspaper, The Northern Light, and as an employee, are already making her a stellar member of the MSI team. When she’s not busy being a digital media rock star, Mariah spends her time reading comics (DC over Marvel, with a healthy appreciation for the MCU), playing video games with friends, and binge-watching TV shows and movies in the comfort of her own home.

Aleya Gile

Administrative Assistant

Aleya keeps us all going as our Administrative Assistant. MSI takes pride in providing a welcoming voice and face to every client and visitor, and Aleya really hits it out of the park. From answering the phone and admin tasks to accounting support and her newest skill: IT guru for conference room technology, she’s quickly become a valued addition to the MSI team.

Aleya holds a bachelor’s in International Studies from UAA, and a love for travel that has brought her to Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines. Aleya brings a taste of adventure into the office. Her seasonal decorating in particular transforms every inch of the office it touches. When she’s not at work she loves playing video games, getting outdoors and enjoying Alaska, hanging out with her dogs and exploring her drawing skills.

Amanda Allard

Account Coordinator

Amanda hung up her legal assistant hat in the civil defense litigation world to pursue a career in line with her degree field. Amanda is rarely, alphabetically, the last at anything. Speaking of the alphabet, she’s got some alphabet soup following her name. She graduated as an Honors Scholar and undergraduate researcher from the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) with a dual Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Management and Marketing with a minor in Communication. She is also currently pursuing her first master’s degree (MS) in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis in Leading in Business Settings from Creighton University. Her long-term goal is to use her degrees, skills, and experiences to help our community through encouraging corporate social responsibility, volunteerism, and by simply doing good work.

In her free time, Amanda sits on the Board of Directors for the Women’s Power League of Alaska helping to promote gender and racial equality statewide. She loves getting after it in the great Alaska wilderness, whether it be cold weather camping or casting and blasting; her preference is for things that live in water, or animals that don’t hunt her back. The only limits Amanda has are on how many sockeye salmon she can catch in a day!

Cassandra Cosio

Junior Web Developer

Cassandra assists the web team with the creation and maintenance of our many awesome websites. She is always ready to jump in and utilize her knowledge of CSS and HTML. Before coming to Alaska and MSI, Cassandra worked as the Associate Web Designer for the college she graduated from, where she handled updating, maintaining, and providing guidance to various departments on their own separate web pages.

Hailing from Canada, Cassandra has lived in Alaska for 4 years. She received her diploma with honors in Web and Graphic design, where she discovered a passion for coding. As the local Canadian, she takes her maple syrup and poutine very seriously and would like you to know that shredded cheese on top of fries with gravy is not poutine. Cheese curds or bust, eh.

Mercy Nyaga

Account Executive

Mercy was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance. However, Mercy’s heart and soul is really in media advertising, which is backed by her over 10 years of experience in business development and marketing. She is a communication professional who loves to implement strategies that help her clients grow and enjoys accounts management, customer portfolio management, and developing and executing integrated marketing and communications plans from end to end. Mercy is the definition of a stickler, as excellence is the only standard she strives for. In Mercy’s humble opinion, a good day’s work means she is leaving the office with her clients satisfied and happy. 

Mercy may be a bit of a workaholic, but she also knows when to take a break and enjoy her time off. When she’s not making moves at MSI, Mercy loves to travel across the globe, enjoy a good home-cooked meal (and is a self-proclaimed amazing home chef!), have great conversations with people , and sneak in a little bit of fun here and there. Mercy is also proud to be an amazing wife and a mama to one energetic, fun young man. If it wasn’t for the world of advertising Mercy may be a full-time globetrotter, but we’re thrilled to have her in Alaska and as a member of Team MSI! 

Kristen Garland

Director of Digital Services

What do you get when two woman-owned businesses join into one? A whole lot of awesome. Kristen is one of the state’s leading experts on digital marketing. In her 25-year career, she has worked in a variety of roles in digital marketing and technology, including as marketing director for a telecommunications company. Then she founded Tonbo Digital and grew it into an authority on SEO, SEM, and all other ways of getting a message out through the internet. When she merged Tonbo with MSI, Kristen exponentially expanded our agency’s digital capabilities while simultaneously giving her clients access to the strongest full-service advertising agency in Alaska. 

Kristen started her professional life with the goal of becoming a teacher. But then she bought her first computer, fell in love with what was then new tech and landed in a computer-market research firm instead of a classroom. Luckily, she decided to bring her computer here. Now, Kristen leads MSI’s digital team to grow client businesses with smart strategies and cutting-edge digital tactics while tracking all performance with actionable marketing insights and reporting.

Asia Bauzon

Art Director

You don’t make it to Alaska’s Most Wanted list by being timid. Air Force veteran and all-around badass Asia Bauzon has weaponized creativity. By the time Ye Olde Advertising Agency down the street brews its first earth-tone decanter of decaf herbal tea, Asia has already detonated a neutron bomb of great art. Got a problem with stale branding and inert sales? Are you being bullied by bigger competitors? Maybe it’s time to sick Asia on ‘em. Then run the vacuum and put out some biscuits – because you’re about to get visitors. We call them “customers.”

After 10 years of going into harm’s way to defend your freedom while also earning a Bachelor of Art from UAA, Asia enlisted in the advertising business. She’s a wife and mom, but don’t let her pretty smile fool you: She’s an Alaska girl, nose to toes – which means if a big brownie roars out of the woods while she’s pulling sockeyes out of a river with a toddler on her back, she can snap its picture or make that old grizz wish it’d never been born. Your choice, bear. These boots were made for walking. You know the rest.

Vlad Titarenko

Web

Vlad works with our web developer, Bryan Meshke, to create exceptional websites that are both highly effective and gorgeous/cool/awesome/neato. With a specialty in website security, Vlad handles a lot of the technical heavy lifting in both front-end and back-end site building. A native of Russia, he lived for years in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, which is home to many of the world’s largest tech companies. Thanks to this exposure, he has expert-level knowledge of all technical aspects of web programming. So, when you need bank-vault-level security for your site, Vlad is your guy.

Vlad works with server-side languages, databases, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and everything between. He can set up HTTPS protocol, DNS, server monitoring and more to keep your site safe and secure.

Tara Storter

Associate Creative Director

For more than a decade, Tara has created great art at MSI Communications. She possesses extensive experience designing brands and corporate identities for clients in industries ranging from tourism to Alaska Native corporations to oil and gas. Perhaps Tara’s most prominent contribution to the Anchorage community is her work that attracts visitors to our great city. For more than 10 years, she has designed the annual Visit Anchorage visitors and restaurant guides.

Tara earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in graphic design from University of Alaska Anchorage. For her, design is not just a balance of words and image; it’s bringing a compelling idea to life.  If you can't find Tara, look up. Tara is an accomplished rock and ice climber who travels the world looking for her next high.

Michelle Jenkins

Production Manager

Michelle is a rock star and will be president of this agency soon, maybe of the entire country. Until then, she puts her sunny personality and Southern-belle accent to work accelerating our clients’ businesses, doing everything from client interaction to budgeting to steering projects through the Art Department. Above all, she ensures clients get our very best work on time and under budget.

Dedicated and energetic, Michelle was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where she rebelled against dull, boring design and received a degree in art.

Loren Church

Video Editor
Loren Church

Loren is an award-winning editor with over 20 years' experience working on everything from Hollywood movies to TV commercials to in-house, educational videos for Alaska employers. He is a technical master who routinely transforms raw footage and sound into compelling, high-quality TV ads that look right at home between big-budget, national spots aired in prime time. Let's put it this way: If you watch TV in Alaska, you've seen Loren's work.

He uses his skill to learn new things every day and deliver the best-quality product for every client at every budget level. Loren graduated from Al Collins Graphic Design School in 1999 with a visual communications degree specializing in video editing - then he began schooling every other editor on how to make great work in the Great Land.

Bryan Cadavos

Art Director

Bryan has the rare ability to excel at both precision technical and highly creative work. He is an expert in logo, brand, illustration and digital design. Bryan has designed for many industries, from tourism to oil and gas to finance, education and telecommunications, and has worked on household name brands, such as BP, Midas, McDonalds and Guess Jeans.

A long-time Alaskan, Bryan knows Anchorage intimately, but he also has extensive, first-person knowledge of the wider world, having traveled to many countries during his time in the U.S. Navy, where he was tasked with life-or-death responsibilities. Following the service, he earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of California - San Diego before returning home to Alaska. He is a proud husband and father to young children, who are his first and toughest audience.

Keith Baxter

Account Manager

Born and bred on the Kenai Peninsula, Keith (aka "Baxter") brings a strong background in Alaska-tourism marketing, journalism and government service to MSI. Baxter spent the past decade working to help businesses, communities and organizations in Southcentral achieve their goals. His enthusiasm and extensive knowledge of Alaska's people, industries and history make him a great asset to our team. He is responsible for collaborating with clients to develop, execute and measure strategic communications plans.

There are four generations of the Baxter family living in Alaska, and Keith has great stories about life here. He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public communication from University of Alaska Anchorage and is the proud father of four amazing children who keep him humble and happy. If you’re looking for dad jokes, you’ve come to the right guy.

Ashley Brinkman

Account Manager

Ashley supports clients big and small, always with the goal of growing their business. From grassroots efforts to traditional and multi-media campaigns, she works tirelessly to meet and exceed campaign objectives for her clients. With a background in financial-services marketing, it’s no wonder Ashley’s sweet spot is balancing budgets and tight deadlines. But, frankly, she's pretty sweet herself.

Born and raised in very small-town South Dakota, Ashley scored her first job at 13 years old working in the pit downrange at a gun club loading skeets into the arm of the machine that flung the little, clay discs into the sky. She earned $10 a day, which she spent every evening in the video-game arcade. Ashley moved to Anchorage 10 years ago with her hometown love (who is now her husband). She serves on the board of the Alaska Literacy Program, where there are no skeet machines.

Bryan Meshke

Web Director

Bryan has designed, modernized and maintained dozens of websites for some of Alaska’s largest employers and nonprofit agencies. He is an expert in WordPress and back-end security. Before coming to MSI, Bryan worked with local ad agencies and ran his own company, providing web design and development to Alaska businesses and other designers.

Raised in Seattle, Bryan has lived in Alaska for 20 years. He holds two bachelor’s degrees, one in Business Administration and another in Fine Arts. He brings a powerful combination of business savvy, artistic creativity, and extensive knowledge of technology to every project. Bryan teaches web design at University of Alaska Anchorage.