Team

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.

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 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.

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.

Known for her strategic thinking, creativity, and dedication to building strong client relationships, Karen is a perfect fit for our team. As Director of Client Services, Karen fosters knowledge-sharing across all departments to provide collaborative and informed solutions. 

With more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications, Karen excels at crafting multi-channel campaigns that drive impactful change. Her keen understanding of client needs and market trends coupled with a focus on data-driven results, delivers success for our clients.

“What I love most about MSI, besides the fabulous people and clients, is that it’s a values-driven organization,” Karen says. “The values of kindness, courage, and integrity are the perfect foundation for fostering a thriving workplace.”

When she’s not working her magic at MSI, Karen is likely plotting her next outdoor adventure or planning her next meal.

Tara leads our Art Department, which means she guides quite literally everything MSI produces. After 20 years in the business, she understands that great creative work does not grow organically. It must be carefully cultivated and – most important – nurtured with the purpose of achieving specific goals. A prize-winning designer herself, she mentors other designers, achieves effective collaboration within multi-specialized groups and inspires everyone on our team to achieve excellence in everything we do. Her philosophy for successful communications is (1) always design creative based on forward-looking strategy, (2) always reach for a new way to craft a message and (3) always follow data-driven performance and rapidly adapt the work to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Tara is the very embodiment of an Alaska woman, an outdoors lover with extensive cliff-face and ice-climbing accomplishments whose favorite job is mom. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in graphic design from the University of Alaska Anchorage. For her, design is not just a balance of words and image; it’s bringing a compelling idea to life. 

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.

Loren Church oversees, guides or creates every aspect of all MSI filmed or audio projects, from Alaska Airlines Club 49 to ConocoPhillips and the Alaska Railroad. His work is a mainstay on televisions, radios and smartphones throughout Alaska and airs frequently throughout the U.S. An award-winning visual storyteller, he has worked on film sets and in editing bays for more than 25 years collaborating with a diverse range of brands on everything from Hollywood movies to TV and radio spots to corporate videos. Loren is a technical master of light who transforms raw footage, audio, and graphics into compelling video – like building a cathedral from a pile of stones.

Devoted husband Loren is also devoted to Star Wars, and he and his wife, Megan, have actually gone on vacation for the sole purpose of visiting the Star Wars adventure park at Disneyland. Born and raised in Alaska, Loren grew up in Big Lake, where the youngster had to bang a pot with a wooden spoon as he walked to the bus stop at the end of the family driveway to ward off moose. He went to Arizona to study animation at Collins College but fell in love with video editing. We – and a whole lot of Alaska’s most important employers – are glad he did.

We call her “Amazing Amanda” for good reason. She essentially has two jobs, skillfully deploying two disciplines of new-media communications that have become crucial to our clients’ success in the modern marketplace. Amanda is our in-house expert on search-engine marketing and, in her digital marketing role, spearheads digital reporting and analytics, the metrics we use to achieve MSI’s industry-leading performance. By understanding how any given ad is performing, we can reallocate resources to better target what’s working and reduce focus on what’s not. That means we actually move the needle for our clients while also maximizing their budgets. In her project manager role, Amanda is the oversight liaison in all directions, working smoothly with Art Department, media placement, clients, vendors and everyone else who is engaged in a complex advertising campaign. 

Amanda isn’t just amazing at work. She graduated as an honors scholar and undergraduate researcher from University of Alaska Anchorage and scored a master’s degree from Creighton University. Amanda is a strong advocate for equal rights for all Alaskans and sits on the boards of directors for Identity Alaska,a local nonprofit that offers community services and healthcare tailored to LGBTQ+ individuals, and the Women’s Power League of Alaska. She is also on the board of the American Marketing Association Alaska. Born and raised in Alaska, the only limits Amanda has are on how many sockeye salmon she can catch in a day.

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.

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.

The magic of Asia’s art is imagery that speaks louder than words. Contemporary and playful with a touch of adventure, her clever design is the signature style of Alaska Airlines Club 49 and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, in addition to many other MSI clients. Asia conceives and directs TV spots, creates animated digital ads, transforms airport columns into gateways to sunny vacations and much more. She understands that the heart of a company’s identity is the audience’s emotional connection with its brand, and her talent is being able to surprise viewers with the realization that they’ve opened a window into a world of possibilities.

After 10 years of going into harm’s way to defend your freedom while also earning a bachelor’s degree 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, 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.

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.

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 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 and data visualization courses at University of Alaska Anchorage.

Raised in Alaska, Carol began her professional life at another Anchorage advertising agency, where she met her husband, then took a temporary retirement to raise the couple’s three daughters. After years of hiking, fishing, skiing and homeworking with her girls, she became a volunteer at Mat-Su School District as a behavior-support aide working with disruptive and handicapped children, many of whom had troubled home lives. Then her husband asked her to come work with him. So now Carol spends her days keeping a close eye on our creative director. A very close eye. (Word to the wise: Do NOT leave a dirty coffee cup in MSI’s kitchen.)

Being a mother is Carol Coe’s proudest accomplishment; and, frankly, that’s not far from what she does at MSI, but for highly accomplished professionals. As a billing professional, Carol is a vital asset to our team, by ensuring accurate financial transactions, efficient billing processes, and overall financial success. Carol takes care of our entire team, from supporting the CFO with a mind-boggling array of financial services to coordinating events and baking the best French toast known to man. You can find her managing our billing cycle, coordinating with clients and our account team to keep us on schedule and paid-in-full.

As the Team Lead of Digital Services at MSI, Chelsea has her hand in a bit of all of the digital media that goes through MSI. With over 10 years of marketing experience, she is a Digital Media Specialist, focused on Programmatic Placements, Digital Video & Radio, SEM, SEO & Social Media Management. She has the expertise to know what goes into a digital campaign and can tell you if your CTR, CPM or CPC is great or needs a new tactic. 

Chelsea graduated from San Francisco State University with a BS in Industrial Design and Marketing in 2013. After a few Marketing positions, and a few career pivots, she sold everything and moved from San Francisco up to Anchorage in 2016 with her then boyfriend. Years later, she is now married with two kids, loving Alaska and all it has to offer! When she's not honing her digital marketing skills, you can find her hiking, camping, teaching Yoga & PiYo, and chasing after her children.

Cassandra has shot to the forefront of young front-end developers in Alaska because she understands a website must succeed on multiple levels at the same time. It’s got to be cool enough to draw people in – but planned logically to guide them to what they want. An expert in CSS, HTML and PHP, Cassandra has crafted websites for very diverse clients, from multi-billion-dollar First National Bank Alaska to child-advocacy nonprofit thread* Alaska. Not only is she a tech ninja, but she plays well with others. She shoulders part of the project management and provides guidance in all directions, meeting regularly with graphic designers, client services and clients themselves. She’s also the first point of contact as our help desk, making sure every MSI client’s site is always up and running and always secure.

Maybe part of the reason Cassandra is so nice is she’s Canadian. Or used to be, before she fell in love with an Alaskan and moved here to get married and start a family. She grew up in both big-city and small-town British Columbia, daughter of a tow truck driver who used her daddy’s tools to build tree forts when not solving complex challenges in video games. It’s almost like Cassandra grew up learning skills she would need to be the cool Alaska mom who builds awesome websites.

Remember phone books? No one else does, either. Consumers are on the internet now, and when a company wants to reach them, they get Dianne. She’s one of the state’s most talented experts in the complex world of digital marketing. At MSI, she develops data-backed and insight-based strategies that precisely segment audiences and identify their online behaviors to serve the most effective ads exactly when and where they’re online. Being relevant in our messaging and targeting reduces clients’ marketing budgets and amplifies their business growth. Dianne’s industry-leading proficiencies in brand management, marketing analytics, and business development - combined with robust content curation and design skills - have helped MSI build strategic pipelines of motivated and brand-loyal audiences for our clients.

When it comes to Alaska cred, Dianne is the real deal. She grew up in Utqiaqvik, the northernmost community in America, and holds degrees in management and marketing from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She’s also a freelance make-up artist(!).

Since the moment Joshua landed at MSI, his camera has been rolling and his mouse has been editing. After eight years working in newsrooms, he welcomed the opportunity to stretch his craft and explore his creativity. Whether gathering the A-roll, B-roll or stills, Joshua is happiest behind the lens, gathering the ingredients he needs for the final product he envisions.

Joshua earned his degree in Film and Video Production from Full Sail University in Florida and loves applying everything he learned there and in his career since. He is a husband and father who makes a point to take his family on any trail he can—from Anchorage to Whittier and all the places in between. He especially loves to forage with his kids for berries and mushrooms, where their labor is routinely turned into delicious treats.

Born and raised on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, Keith has been a key member of the MSI client services team since 2018. With more than a decade and a half of experience working with Alaska businesses, nonprofits, and government entities – he enjoys helping organizations of all shapes and sizes achieve their communication 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 and execute strategic communications plans spanning all creative mediums. He studied public relations and advertising at the University of Alaska Anchorage where he received a B.A. in Journalism and Public Communications in 2006.

Keith is the proud father of four amazing children who keep him humble and happy. With several generations of Baxters in Alaska, he has great stories about growing up and raising a family in the “Last Frontier.” If you’re looking for dad jokes or Alaska-themed memes, you’ve come to the right guy.

Keith guides all written work produced by the agency to achieve what has become MSI’s defining added value for our clients: creative messaging that achieves real-world results. The product of a Jesuit education, he is an expert-level authority on the technicals of grammar, punctuation and AP Style. A core member of the Art Department, he collaborates with the creative team to create, evolve and protect branding that achieves top-line growth for many of the state’s largest employers and several international corporations.

Throughout his career, he has led storytelling for virtually every employer of significance in Alaska, including all 12 Alaska Native regional corporations. His work has been used in the press to debate laws and across virtually every form of traditional and new media to elect government leaders, generate new business for companies large and small, inspire Alaskans to embrace social and professional change, and even improve their health. Born and raised in Detroit, Keith is an ex-Marine and graduate of the prestigious writing program at University of Arizona. He worked in Hollywood for more than a decade, and his dialogue has been performed by Donald Sutherland, Mira Sorvino and others. He has been arrested three times in Mexico.

A native of Los Angeles, Damien inherited his love of art and design from his father, and a love for music and performing from his mother. After earning his graphic design degree from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, California, he would combine his passions by art directing for a variety of national consumer music publications like Guitar Player Magazine and Electronic Musician. Seizing an opportunity to work abroad, Damien spent 5 years in Greece, designing for Athens-based communications agencies in the government, energy, financial, and real estate sectors. Of his experience as an expat designer, Damien observes “I was given a unique insight into the country’s economic and political challenges, and the chance to advance her interests through my own vision.” It was during this overseas tenure that Damien’s work was noticed half the globe away by MSI Communications. Imported into Anchorage in 2023, Damien survived his first Alaskan winter ungored by a moose.

Lance is a master of overseeing every detail of multiple projects for multiple clients simultaneously. He has an uncanny ability to maintain clear visibility into progress and budget while also contributing innovative ideas for effective messaging to our creative team. He really is a multi-talented juggler of all things required for a brand to communicate effectively. The very embodiment of professionalism, Lance works directly with clients to help them elucidate their goals, then brings them fresh ideas and data-based strategies for achieving those goals at a budget that makes sense to them. Within the agency, he is the lynchpin between all the moving parts and multi-specialized team members, setting deadlines and assigning tasks, clearing roadblocks and closely following every phase of every project for some of the state’s most significant employers. Once one understands that public communication is the driver of profitability, we can then say it’s no understatement that Lance is one of the most impactful people in the state’s economy.

Born and raised in Mat-Su, Lance is closely in tune with the globally connected world of pop culture, values and rapidly changing trends. He knows what’s up, what’s hot and what’s good for our clients. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication and a love of fashion, which is a great set of characteristics for someone guiding the public images of Alaska’s best-known and best-loved brands.

Madison came here to wake us up! With over 10 years working in the coffee industry, 6 of those as a Marketing Director for a local coffee company, she came to us awake and ready to jump in to work. Madison holds a degree in Marketing from Boise State University and is passionate about helping her clients’ business thrive. As our newest Project Manager, she has expertise in all aspects of marketing, and already feels like an integral part of our family.

Madison is a dog, cat, and plant mom. In her free time, she loves baking, gardening, and hiking with her dogs. Though she describes herself as an “old lady at heart”, her humor and down-to-earth personality has made her a joyous addition to our MSI Family.

Social media has seismically changed how companies and pretty much all organizations interact with their customers and the people they want to be their customers. Mariah is hands-down the state’s leading expert on raising clients’ visibility and – more important – leveraging that visibility to get people to engage with brands. She tells us that “Social media is where people go to find out about you. It’s not a billboard or an ad. It’s a two-way conversation, the one place you can talk with your audience, not at them.” MSI represents the biggest brands in the state, and Mariah is the mad genius behind their interactive presence on the web, which greatly increases customer loyalty, drives their brand and, ultimately, grows their bottom-line success. She is chess-master knowledgeable about the arcane technical systems necessary to maximize our clients’ impact across all social channels and – critically – she also knows and understands the constant shifts in market priorities and creative styles. So, she always knows what is working best now and how to tailor messaging and tactics to seize that momentum for our clients.

Born and raised right here in Anchortown, Mariah earned a bachelor’s degree from UAA in journalism and public communications with a concentration in digital media. She has a razor-sharp understanding of global pop culture and trends, yet she is closely connected to the soul of Alaska and has family from here to Utqiagvik. Closely related to social media, Mariah is so adept at the complex world of online gaming she is actually a game master, overseeing an entire virtual world hosting participants around the globe – usually with her pound-rescue German shepherd on her lap.

Mercy earned her Bachelor of Commerce in Finance from the University of Nairobi. However, Mercy’s heart and soul is really in media advertising, which is backed by her over 12 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 spending time with her family. 

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.