Olivia Plangger from Bloomington, Illinois, is our grounded and compassionate Account Manager. Olivia’s organizational skills and ambition helps drive our team to success. She’s a natural manager, living through her Google Calendar. She likes to make a plan and follow through with it, whether that is making cookies for friends, attending her intramural basketball games or visiting her longtime family vacation spot in Bonita Springs, Florida.

Olivia currently serves as Vice President of Internal Communications for PRSSA Mizzou, the University of Missouri chapter of the Public Relation Student Society of America. She also had experience as a Public Relations Specialist and Copywriter at Matchbook Marketing Agency.

Olivia can understand our creative team and contribute from a logistical perspective because of her experience conducting pre-market testing on creative concepts and balancing roles on three campaign teams as a Marketing Creative Content Intern at State Farm. Her experience also includes leading a team to create and pitch an integrated B2B advertising campaign as a VML intern.

Olivia is a go-getter. She is involved across campus in the Honors College, American Advertising Federation, Griffiths Leadership Society for Women, Summer Welcome, intramural basketball and Alpha Chi Omega, showing her ability to manage her commitments throughout her time at college.

Olivia advocates for the client’s wants within the agency, but her advocacy doesn’t stop there. She’s also been a fundraising and advocacy volunteer with True North, advocating for domestic and sexual violence survivors in the Columbia area. Along with that, she also helps as a clean up crew volunteer where she removes invasive honeysuckle at Grindstone Park Nature Reserve.

While Olivia has put her 10-year violinist journey on pause, she still enjoys listening to music that shares a story. She even saw Adele live earlier this year and is already planning her next concert!

Maggie McCloud from Springfield, Illinois, is our fashion-forward Art Director. Maggie has always been creative, whether that’s through her outfits, her music taste, the items she thrifts or the art she creates. Maggie firmly stands on the ground that fashion is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression. Her style represents herself and her artistic style in true Art Director fashion. Maggie loves all things creative and has worked with all sorts of digital design, but her favorite form of artwork comes down to her hand-drawn realistic portraits.

Maggie has worked as a graphic designer for several years, having experiences at Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Pendulum Public Relations, Axos Bank and Matchbook Marketing. She’s even held the role of Creative Lead for one of Matchbook Marketing’s clients, Allter. Her time spent studying design and experimenting with her own style has prepared her for her time in the spotlight while she fulfills the Art Director role.

Not surprisingly, Maggie is also highly involved in the Graphic Design Club. Her other campus involvements include being a member AAF Mizzou, the University of Missouri chapter of the American Advertising Federation and Mizzou Women in Media. Each of these student organizations has kept Maggie thinking creatively and building a network of equally talented individuals throughout her time at Mizzou.

A fun fact about Maggie is that she has broken both of her collarbones! The first time, she fell off the back of her grandmother’s couch when she was 3 and the second time, she hurt herself playing leapfrog at daycare when she was 6.

Leah Brokaw from Overland Park, Kansas, is our knowledgeable Digital Strategist. Leah is a born and raised strategist, as a middle sister she navigates her busy family dynamic while being the calm in the chaos. Leah is able to use her life skills and knowledge of digital platforms to enhance campaigns by helping them earn a digital boost. Besides that, Leah is filled with optimism and charisma, making her an excellent team member who keeps morale high.

In her professional life, Leah has worked as an Account Assistant and Marketing Intern at SuretyBonds.com where she optimized website content while incorporating SEO best practices. She also developed and planned social media content and gained experience with Google Analytics and Google Search Console. She’s the go-to-gal for research and strategy for all digital media platforms.

She is also involved in Kappa Kappa Gamma and volunteers her time at the Cedar Creek Therapeutic Riding Center. Leah strives for a balanced life, spending time online on social media as well as offline, spending time with her family and friends or horseback riding.

There is more to Leah, she has found that most mornings she will sneeze when she gets hungry. No wonder past employers always made sure the office was stocked with breakfast goodies!

Nyah Evans from Tampa, Florida, is our optimistic and detail-oriented Graphic Designer. Nyah is a professional vibe curator, setting the mood for all design work. Nyah knows how to get everyone’s creative juices flowing and sometimes that means blasting the best rap songs to get the team talking. She uses clothes and music to represent her own cool girl style. However, in true Graphic Designer fashion, she’s able to create work that resonates with a brand and its intended target audience.

Nyah has a vast amount of experience with design as she has held the roles of Editor-in-Chief for the Instazine project, Creative Lead, and Brand Strategy Lead for Matchbook Marketing. Outside of that, Nyah has also held the role of Creative Strategist at Intero Digital. She now holds the role of Art Director at VML, working to create digital designs and social media posts for the Wendy’s account. She has also been able to gain valuable design experience as the teaching assistant for the Introduction to Strategic Writing and Design class at the School of Journalism, helping students understand and learn the basics of design.

As for her campus involvement, Nyah is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. Through this organization, she has been able to connect with other Mizzou journalists, network with Mizzou alumni and visit many public relations, advertising and television agencies.

Nyah chooses to live life on the edge, often jumping at unique opportunities that present themselves to her. This past year, Nyah spent time training for and participating in an amateur boxing match, not just for bragging rights, but to raise money and awareness for pediatric cancer research.

Gracie Hedenberg from St. Louis, is our inquisitive Qualitative Strategist. Gracie enjoys eating at local restaurants everywhere she goes, testing out her own theories on the best places to eat. Along with her love of hunting for the best restaurants in the city, she also hones her ability to advance her meticulous thrifting hobby, where she spends hours searching for what will be the next best outfit for her. She is consistently inspired by new knowledge and will dive deep into an area of questions to pull the best information for the target audience.

Gracie is passionate about communications and advertising. That passion has only continued to grow during her time as a Media Intern at True Media and in her current role as a Strategic Communication Intern with the College of Health Sciences here at Mizzou. Gracie was also able to combine her love of travel and trying new foods with her passion for her work through her time abroad at Phrenos EU in Brussels, Belgium. All her past experiences have allowed her to back her knowledge and expertise with strategy. She loves to look toward the big picture by collecting information to eventually lay out the creative campaign.

During her early days at the University of Missouri, Gracie spent her time as the Social Media Editor at The Maneater. The position solidified Gracie’s love for communications and advertising and assured her that she was on the right track.

Aside from Gracie’s travel to Brussels, she has also been to 16 national parks thus far. Her favorite park at the time is the Narrows at Zion National Park but a close second would be the Acadia in Maine.

Laura Huckstep from Clarksville, Missouri, is our creative and organized Media Planner. Laura has many interests, including makeup, skincare and fashion. Her ability to be diverse in her personal life sets her up for success to executing media strategies across various media platforms, many of which she is familiar with due to her love of watching and creating content on multiple platforms herself.

Laura has worked as a Social Media Strategist for Matchbook Marketing as well as a Communications Intern for Instinctif Partners in Brussels. While working for Matchbook Marketing, she honed her social media and research skills by creating social content for Independence Family Eyecare on Instagram. Laura also spent time researching data on Antimicrobial Resistance in the EU and compiling that data into slideshows for the client. She currently holds the position of Content Marketing Writer for Central Bank where she writes articles about finances and helps promote them with social media content that she creates. Each position has exposed her to more media platforms and has helped her better understand the media planning space.

Laura is also involved as a member of Alpha Delta Pi and spends her time volunteering with Mid-Missouri Ronald McDonald House.

A fun fact about Laura is that she grew up on a farm and her knowledge of agriculture is quite impressive. Throughout her years on the farm, she’s found joy in cooking and trying new recipes, especially with fresh farm produce.