Account Manager

Account Manager Abigail Klapatauskas is the Team Atlas mission commander as she balances client asks, meeting agendas and keeping the team’s mission pointed toward the stars. Abigail honed her leadership skills on campus in the world of sports media, breaking through the male-dominated field and becoming a trailblazer in both strategic communication and sports journalism. Currently, she is the first female co-director of KCOU Sports, the student radio outlet for the University of Missouri, and previously served as the president of the Association for Women in Sports Media. 

In her professional career, Abigail has cultivated a diverse portfolio. Abigail stood at the forefront of developing Name Image & Likeness (NIL) for Mizzou Athletics by helping to grow an athlete’s following by 68% and cultivating a brand partnership. She also worked within the educational field as an account planning intern for McGraw-Hill. In this role, she researched and updated client accounts and pitched a service project with a local after-school program. During the school year, Abigail spends time at the University of Missouri Writing Center tutoring over 100 students a semester and promoting the Writing Center’s initiatives. 

Abigail is also passionate about helping people with disabilities. Inspired by her younger sister Madilyn, who has Down Syndrome, Abigail created, promoted and executed the first ever sensory-friendly viewing area for the Mizzou Homecoming Parade as part of the Steering Committee. She also volunteers at the Miracle League of Dubuque, an adaptive T-ball league for kids. She even had the honor of playing “Homer”, the league’s anthropomorphic baseball mascot. One of the ways Abigail expresses her love for her sister is through learning American Sign Language, or ASL. ASL helps Abigail understand and communicate with Madilyn beyond verbal communication. Abigail loves signing jokes, stories and more with Madilyn. 

Quantitative Strategist

As the Quantitative Strategist, Piper is committed to guiding our mission’s course through statistical analysis and valuable strategic insights. Prior to MOJO Ad, Piper worked at Visionworks Media Group creating social media posts, website copy and social media and search engine strategy for several businesses in the Columbia area. Piper also worked as a demands clerk at Harper, Evans, Hilbrenner & Netemeyer, investigating pages of legal documents to help calculate settlements for personal injury cases. She currently serves as an undergraduate researcher for the Gregory Scholars Program working on multiple research projects including a study of gender bias in citations received by publishers of strategic communication research.

Piper prides herself on being a passionate team player and has been a major contributor to Missouri Student Media (MSM) during her time at the University of Missouri. She assumed the role of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion chair of MSM in 2022, ensuring that student newsrooms remained a space for all journalism students. She rose to the rank of managing editor during her time at The Maneater, the student newspaper. Piper currently serves as the president of the University of Missouri chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), and served as the community chair when they won NAHJ Chapter of the Year in 2024. 

Piper’s talents extend beyond quantitative research and into the galaxy of the fine arts. While attending the Denver School of the Arts, Piper fell in love with live music and poetry performance. She created a chapbook of her poetry during her senior year and performed at numerous live poetry showings, which can be found in the archives of her mother’s phone. She can be reached at numerous open mic nights around the Columbia area. 

Copy Writer

For Blaise Fields, being a Copywriter on Team Atlas seemed written in the stars. Blaise hails from the small town of Clever, Missouri, and had no strategic communication experience before coming to the University of Missouri. He quickly made up for lost time by launching into multiple extracurriculars and honing his creative expertise. Blaise began his strategic journey at Matchbook Marketing, a student run marketing agency, rising to the role of Account Manager in just three semesters. He also helped found Late Night Mizzou, an on-campus comedy show, and served as head writer, director and actor. Nowadays, Blaise’s favorite creative outlet is his sports & variety radio show “Mixed Doubles” which he writes, hosts, produces and promotes through self-created graphics.

Blaise also has an expansive professional portfolio, starting with his time at World Of Good Brands as an SEO specialist. In this role, he optimized hundreds of sports articles to rank higher in search engines using AI tools. He also served as an Audience Development intern at 417 Magazine, a Springfield-based publication, where he wrote copy and created social media plans for the publication. Most recently, Blaise had the pleasure of working for True Media, a media strategy firm, as a media intern. He sharpened his problem solving skills by creating proposals for potential clients, leveraging the power of AI and gathering insights for many of True Media’s national clients. 

In his free time, Blaise enjoys creating new projects to challenge himself. Currently, he is working on a feature-length documentary about the rise and fall of Chance The Rapper as part of his lifelong dream to be a long-form content creator. When he’s not writing for, in front of, or behind a camera, he can be found slinging breadsticks as a server at the local Olive Garden.

Media planner

In the fragmented solar system of today’s media landscape, Haley Gebauer serves as team Atlas’ guide for all things media strategy. Her thoughtful touch is crucial to making sure that the creative spark of Atlas is seen at the right place at the right time. Haley brings an unquenchable determination to get the job done. This is best exemplified by her time at Matchbook Marketing, where she worked diligently to capture and edit content for clients aiming to appeal to a younger demographic. This summer, Haley worked as a social media intern at Jasper Paul PR & Marketing, where she transitioned from copywriter, to videographer, to data analyst to help multiple clients thrive on social platforms. 

Haley’s strategic communication skills are only rivaled by her dedication to all things panhellenic. This year, Haley undertook the role of panhellenic counselor providing support and guidance to 63 young women during the week-long formal recruitment process. She also served as the philanthropy subchair for her sorority Chi Omega. As subchair, she helped coordinate and develop fundraising strategies for Wish Week, a week of non-stop philanthropy for Make-A-Wish Foundation. 

When Haley isn’t conquering the media or sorority world, she is a supernova on the dance stage. Haley danced competitively for 12 years during her youth, even appearing in an episode of TLC’s Dance Moms at age 8. While a career as a professional dancer may no longer be her destiny, she has chosen to remain involved in the dance sphere as a teaching assistant for ballet classes at the Columbia Performing Arts Centre. In addition to teaching the perfect pirouette technique to young girls across Columbia, she acts as a director of Mizzou’s Production Dance Squad.

Graphic designer

Zoe Savat is Team Atlas’ Graphic Designer, taking the team’s creative jet fuel and using it for visual lift-off. Zoe’s journey to graphical greatness began at Matchbook Marketing. She started as a graphic designer for Matchbook’s internal team, working to showcase members and collaborate with other Matchbook teams to position Matchbook as the best in student marketing. This led to a role as social task force leader where she manages the clubs social platforms and works with internal leadership to build the prestige of the Matchbook brand online. 

Zoe’s artistic grind doesn’t stop when school does. In summer of 2022, she was a social media intern for Smart Marketing. At Smart Marketing, she developed her design skills while providing creative solutions for a wide range of clients from vegan gummy bears to drug-free advocacy groups. Last summer, she assumed the role of marketing intern for Southern Bank creating advertisements, flyers, social posts and even the occasional billboard. 

Zoe doesn’t just use her creative talents for big name clients or agencies. She also is a major contributor to her sorority, Pi Beta Phi. She wielded her power as director of PR and marketing at Pi Beta Phi to lead a major social media rebrand and ensure a consistent brand image for the sorority. She also managed recruitment endeavors, DEI holiday initiatives and participated in philanthropy events. 

However, Zoe’s biggest fixation isn’t obsessing over color schemes or perfecting her Photoshop skills…it’s concerts. When she isn’t in the stands for artists like Sublime or Don Toliver, she’s finding ways to utilize her time and money to see her favorite artists, often spontaneously. One of her finest live music achievements is sneaking into the pit for Harry Styles from the nosebleeds (shhhh, don’t tell the United Center).

Qualitative strategist

Noah Grimsley is an alien, but not in the extra-terrestrial sense. Instead it’s in his ability to formulate problem solving surveys and valuable insights as Team Atlas’ Qualitative Strategist. The majority of Noah’s skill and experience comes from four summers working in the lucrative aerospace and defense industry. As a market analyst for Shedd Capital LLC, Noah researched prospective acquisitions and his insights helped decide which companies were valuable. He also dabbled in account management, discerning client communication strategy and doing outreach for his clients. 

One of Noah’s biggest strengths is his dedication to philanthropy, which he has engaged on multiple fronts. For starters, Noah’s time as an intern at the Warren Center was a rousing success as he scheduled a fundraising plan for a North Texas Giving Day campaign that raised over $20,000. Noah is also the co-chair for Mizzou Rock-A-Thon, the largest single Greek organization fundraiser in the country. This spring, Noah hopes to raise $250,000 for pancreatic cancer research through creative problem solving and stoic leadership in his role. Noah is also a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi where he served as president and risk manager. In 2023, Noah served as Homecoming director where he led the fraternity to place top three in the service and blood category. He enjoys being involved across campus, including being a proud member of the Chabad house.

A fun fact about Noah is that he lived in Mexico for a year when he was 5 years old. His parents decided to spend a year living in a small town called La-Cruz de Huanacaxtle where Noah attended a small private school learning both English and Spanish and made some lifelong friends. Now, Noah is a proficient speaker of Spanish and has a lifelong affection for Mexican cuisine.

Digital Strategist

Emma Johnson is our personable Digital Strategist plotting our course through the wide terrain of cyberspace. Emma is fresh off an incredible experience studying abroad in Brussels, Belgium, where she assisted with client work for FleishmanHillard EU. She created storyboards and pitches as well as conducted research but her favorite memory of her time in Belgium was going to her favorite frite stand after class with her friends. The previous summer, Emma served as a city manager intern for Olathe, Kansas, conducting in-depth policy research, formulating budgets and overseeing social media channels for the city of over 145,000 citizens. 

In Columbia, Emma brings her data-driven approach and passion for strategy to multiple extracurriculars and jobs. Emma can be seen around the Missouri School of Journalism giving lively tours as a journalism ambassador and regaling prospective students of her time at the institution. Before beginning her senior year, she undertook the role of panhellenic counselor guiding 72 girls through the sorority recruitment process and helping them embark on the university experience. She was also hired as the director of marketing for Orangetheory Fitness in Columbia working to localize a national brand and communicate with a large subscriber base. In spite of her busy schedule, Emma finds time to give back to the Columbia community by volunteering at the local Rainbow House, where she cooks dinners and plays with the kids sheltered there. 

Emma jokes that in spite of her bustling professional career, her greatest accomplishment was getting her foot stuck in a fountain at 3 years old. The legacy of this incident persists in the closing of the fountain to the public as of Aug. 30, 2024. However, most would consider her high school photography a bright spot in a star-studded resume. Emma’s photography has been featured in publications like USA Today and The Washington Post. 

Public Relations account Manager – Strategy

Maggie McCready is ready to blast off as a member of the PR account management team, specializing in strategy. Her curiosity for all things strategic communication and visionary thinking make her a perfect fit to guiding client strategy. She prepared herself for this role by getting reps in as an account management intern at Sandlot + Co. this summer. At Sandlot + Co. Maggie managed multiple client accounts, overseeing creative efforts and even contributing some copywriting and search engine optimization. 

At the University of Missouri, Maggie is one of the foremost leaders of the Strategic Communication community. Maggie currently serves as president of the University of Missouri chapter of the American Advertising Federation. She led this bustling community of over 75 members by formulating professional development opportunities with industry professionals. Maggie also leads strategic communications for the University of Missouri tennis team working as a Mizzou Athletics intern to curate social media content and create post game stories to promote their efforts on the court.

Maggie balances her time in Columbia between multiple pursuits. She is very passionate about her role as a PR committee member on the Homecoming Steering Committee, telling the story of Homecoming and creating fun content across a myriad of platforms. In her spare time, she works at the Ronald McDonald House using her love of cooking to help families. Additionally, she is a member of Mizzou’s chapter of Alpha Delta Pi and considers it the backbone of her college experience and a community in which she is fully committed. 

You might be surprised to learn that Maggie is actually a triplet given her vibrant individualism! She considers her brothers as two of the most important people in her life and enjoys growing up alongside them. Contrary to popular belief, Maggie and her brothers do not have triplet telepathy.

Art director

As Art Director for Team Atlas, Emma Stefanutti is painting the cosmos with her creativity and attention to detail. Emma’s relationship with the fine arts began when she was 3 years old and she started learning the violin. Emma’s journey with the violin took her to Spain and Italy during her elementary school days as she played in an orchestra concert. She played the violin onstage at a TED Talk and a People Magazine event before hanging up the bow at the age of 13. However, her artistic journey was just beginning. 

Emma entered the University of Missouri with a traditional journalistic roadmap, thanks to her time at Palo Alto High School. She began her schooling by working at KOMU, the local NBC affiliate, as a production assistant and digital producer. However, her artistic side got the best of her and she began focusing on strategic communication. She adapted very quickly to the new career path and immersed herself in many of the new opportunities thrown her way. 

She started at Matchbook Marketing, a student-run marketing firm, as a strategist. In this role, Emma worked internally to research, ideate and execute many of the club’s social media initiatives. This gave her the opportunity to not only harness her artistic might, but also learn how strategy plays a role in the creative process. Currently, she is a photography lab monitor for the School of Fine Arts, helping students use the lightroom, print photos and decipher Adobe Photoshop. 

Emma also enjoys volunteering in the fine arts field. In the summer of 2020, Emma was a camp counselor for a local journalism summer camp and contributed to building the camp’s print-centric curriculum. Most recently, Emma volunteered at the United Nations Association Film Festival.

public relations account manager – content

Vivienne Potter works tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that Team Atlas’ campaigns are ready for launch. She is a vital member of the public relations account managing arm of Atlas, specializing in content. Vivienne has found ways to incorporate strategy throughout her undergraduate  years, splitting time between American Advertising Federation (AAF), Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), Matchbook Marketing and her job as Journalism Ambassador at the University of Missouri.

 At AAF and PRSSA, Vivienne learned the current trends in the strategic communication world and made helpful connections amongst her peers. In her digital strategy role at Matchbook Marketing, she ensured the client optimized their online network by formulating strategy for their website and social media pages. She also worked as a journalism ambassador, showcasing the glory of the School of Journalism to the next generation of young professionals. 

Last spring, Vivienne had the privilege of traveling to Barcelona, Spain, on a study abroad program. When she wasn’t expanding her cultural horizons, she engaged in an internship for The Almond Connection Agency, conducting market research for a wide variety of the company’s clients. She also brainstormed campaign strategies and formulated consumer profiles, making herself a valuable asset to the team. Currently, she directs the graphics team for Harpo’s Bar & Grill, one of the largest bars in downtown Columbia. 

Vivienne’s thirst for knowledge extends into one of her greatest hobbies: travel. Vivienne has traveled to 16 countries including a cross-continent road trip across the vast continent of Europe. She also visited Kenya and Tanzania as part of a safari, experiencing the many wonders of the savanna. However, her favorite travel memory was visiting Paris and seeing Versailles. Vivienne’s traveling days are just beginning, and she has her sights set on Thailand and Japan.

video producer

When Team Atlas goes where no team has gone before, they can be assured that Lily will be filming every great leap and bound. Lily is known for creating compelling narratives that can be seen on social media pages, websites and occasionally the big screen. She currently is double majoring in strategic communication and digital storytelling, making her a dual threat unlike any other. As a digital storyteller, she loves ambitiously experimenting with new mediums and roping her friends into getting in front of a camera. Her latest work “Hope Chest” showcases stop motion and has been submitted to multiple film festivals.

The other side of Lily is the wide breadth of work she has done as a strategic communication major. Last summer, she worked for Ogilvy India and was a copywriting powerhouse contributing to brands like KFC and Pernod Ricard. In the summer of 2023, she helped create a lasting brand image for Financial & Tax Architects as a marketing intern.

Her dedication to both journalism and the arts can be seen through the lens of Lily’s on-campus work as well. She started her University of Missouri career in the newsroom of The Maneater, reporting in the Arts & Culture section. She would progress through the ranks of student media to become the co-director for KCOU’s music section, organizing meetings, onboarding staff and creating live events. She also spent time at Matchbook Marketing writing copy for their 2023 instazine “Metamorphosis.” Lily also volunteers in the Columbia creative scene. She has volunteered for the town’s annual True-False festival for the past two years and founded the CoMo Concert Fund, an organization to supercharge the town’s budding live music scene and entice acts from all over the country to perform at one of Columbia’s many live music meccas.