Your friendly, neighborhood ad agency with global reach.

Paul Diamond

Partner

Paul is a teacher, student and purveyor of design. His primary responsibility at DMH is managing teams of designers and writers who thrive on his energy, curiosity and passion for problem solving. He often serves as the spearhead for creative concept sessions and has a knack for promoting and inspiring fearless thinking.

Those who have worked with Paul note his infectious positive attitude and keen ability to distill marketing problems down to the base elements. These attributes make him ideally suited in his roles as both a mentor at DMH and as a part-time teacher of Graphic Design at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Brian Merckens

Partner

Brian has a keen eye for dynamic, inventive design and a keener understanding of how new and evolving technology is impacting visual communications. Tech junkie. Usability Wonk. Design Purist. All of these describe facets of Brian’s strengths. He pushes the company and its clients to embrace technology and beautiful design to solve marketing problems.

Over his 20+ years in the business, Brian has combined his talents as a formally trained designer and added coding and development skills to the mix. That combination provides clients with critical insights into how audiences interact with design and technology.

Sean Hogan

Partner

Sean is a perceptive, strategic leader with an uncanny ability for analyzing complex marketing challenges and identifying the hidden gems that spark breakthroughs. He is the catalyst at DMH. His endless enthusiasm, unwavering focus on branding and attention to detail kindles the connection between DMH and our clients.

As his occasional bow tie indicates, he also believes in the old school, time-tested approach to client service ­– listen to your clients, devise the right strategy, and execute flawlessly.

With over 15 years of experience across every conceivable industry and medium, Sean brings a wealth of diverse experience to every DMH client. His insights and empathy make our clients feel like they always have a powerful advocate.

Doug Newman

Partner

Doug has extensive experience working with a variety of clients, from international sports brands and teams to national agricultural and animal health products. His expertise is clearly evident when helping clients to achieve and maintain significant competitive advantages by identifying opportunities and speaking candidly about the challenges they face.

As a business savvy marketer and strategic advisor, Doug’s insight and judgment is highly regarded by all of those who work with him. He’s personable and passionate, and his cool, confident approach to situation analysis is always reassuring.

Illinois Blasdel

Partner

Illinois wears many hats, and they all fit. He leads PR and Integrated Media at DMH, but his years of experience also make him a powerful strategic planner for clients across all disciplines. With 20 years of experience, Illinois brings a knowledge and expertise that helps clients position their brand and gain exposure in ways they never knew possible.

Don’t let his buttoned-up appearance fool you, Illinois also has a wild(life) streak, too. He’s an avid outdoorsman who hunts and fishes year round. And if you ever need a spot-on review of the latest Asian cuisine in Kansas City, he’s your guy.

Jackie Worth

Account Supervisor

It took 15 years to build the Pyramids of Giza. Cool, but in 15 years, Jackie Worth built a reputation as a forward-thinking, client-assisting, goal-achieving, problem-solving dynamo. One who is able to work with clients to simplify the complex, and one whose favorite two words in the English language are “What’s next?” A question that’s usually followed by, “I have an idea!” Jackie loves working closely in collaboration with her clients and also loves pizza, bourbon, her two Havanese dogs, and the Muppets. Top that, Giza.

Tom Stofac

Creative Director

A copywriter by trade, Tom has worked at agencies across the country and garnered decades of experience as a seasoned, award-winning Creative Director. He got his start in the world of words as a sportswriter covering high school basketball and wrestling and experienced one of those full-circle career moments when his ad made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame – what we like to call home run work. Tom’s also an above-average harmonica player (better after a few beers), a passionate golfer (maybe worse after a few beers) and expert storyteller (ask him about his Neil Young tale – doesn’t every accomplished creative have one?)

Tanya Hoffman Stevens

Account Director

It takes a special kind of skill set and personality to manage multiple internal teams and client relationships. Tanya approaches both with a warmth and focus that perfectly compliment her ability to bring people and ideas together. From building brand strategies to executing across multiple channels, Tanya’s infectious enthusiasm and years of agency experience make her a natural leader.

Tanya is known to relax by going for little 100-mile bike rides over the weekend. That’s nuts by itself, but when you consider the energy she puts into her clients during the week, it’s downright mindboggling.

Martha Stanton

Office Manager

What would we do without her? While everyone at DMH works to serve the needs of our clients, Martha has one extra client who is a real handful – us. Advertising attracts some pretty interesting and diverse types. Finding a way to corral, cajole, and pamper them is more than anyone should be able to handle. On top of being a great mom, somehow Martha manages to do all the little things that keep us, and our clients, one big happy family, too.

Laura Reed

Senior Account Manager

Of course, she’s a client-tested/client-approved account manager. Of course, she can talk media strategy one minute and messaging strategy the next. But, what you really need to know about Laura, concerns peanuts. Yep. Peanuts. You see, Laura believes that her elephant-like memory is one of the things that makes her such a crackerjack Account Manager. And elephants love peanuts, right? Yet, due to some low-fi childhood trauma we don’t need to dive into here, the smell of peanut M&M’s in her car set her teeth on edge. Another thing you need to know about Laura is that she’s probably going to beat you at music trivia. Turns out there’s a real plus that comes from marrying a DJ. You know, besides all the ‘true love/best friend’ stuff.

Kari Porter

Public Relations Manager

Kari graduated from K-State in the heart of Kansas, she’s the second sister out of three, and she’s always in between fascinating documentaries. As much as “the middle” might seem like Kari’s shtick, she’s a top-notch public relations resource on our integrated media team and peaks when she’s writing, planning and strategizing for our client partners. When she’s not swapping original content ideas, she’s curating the latest new music on Spotify, imbibing in craft beers and you guessed it – in the midst of planning her next trip or concert.

Sydney Nager

Integrated Media Specialist

If you’ve never met someone who taught bougie boomers how to ski in Aspen at the tender age of 14, well, now you have. A bit older and more than a bit wiser, these days Sydney prefers to school our clients on how to make the most of their integrated media plans (though she’s still willing to correct your downhill form if asked). When she’s not maximizing paid and unpaid media efforts, Sydney can be found satisfying her inner foodie at area hot spots or chilling with what seems to be an overstuffed teddy bear, but is actually her super sweet, supersized Bernedoodle, Sake.

Bryan Mohr

Creative Director

Bryan has over 10 years of experience in using his creative chops to help build brands. He started out in Lincoln, Nebraska where his primary client was Pinnacle Bank. Throughout his career, he’s led creative efforts on national brands like Gatorade, McDonalds, Chevron and more.

In his free time, Bryan can be found spending time with his wife and daughters, renovating his house or playing golf. Spending time with his family is the only one of those things he’s good at.

Elizabeth McMahan

Media Director

Elizabeth is a media guru by trade, but what caught our eye was the fact that she scuba dives, plays the French Horn, and has had 5 Boxers whose names all start with “D”. With diverse interests and talents like those, you know she’ll always deliver a creative and smart media plan. Her ability to lead with strategy in media planning and buying make her invaluable to DMH and our clients. Call her smart, funny, thoughtful ... just don’t call her Liz. There’s a story there, we just can’t share it.

David Martin

Account Director

Account Managers have to be strategists, accountants, resource managers, and advocates, many times in the same day. Those folks don’t grow on trees, which is why David is so valuable to his clients. With over 15 years in the ad biz, his wealth of experience and easygoing approach reminds clients they’re in good hands.

He’s equally adept at juggling life away from the office being an avid history buff, cook, guitar player, and dedicated Dad.

Danica Lyons

Senior Developer

The self-described “crunchiest developer you ever met” is also an avid gardener, deeply involved in the community, and likes to make her own wine, jams, soap, pickles, clothes, peanut butter, and yes, even granola. So yeah, she’s pretty crafty.

As a veteran front-end developer with a history in design, she’s also pretty handy in regard to all things digital. Danica’s unique skill set gives her a deep understanding of the connection between creativity and development, giving our work added dimension and depth.

Katie Laner

Senior Account Manager

Katie seeks balance in all things. Perhaps because she was right smack in the middle of a family of seven kids. And perhaps why she often follows a hot yoga workout with cold beers on the patio. Balance. The yin and the yang, if you will. And Katie brings that sense of balance to her work, finding just the right balance between the professional and the personal. Like getting to know her client’s business objectives as well as the birthdays of her client’s kids (though she’s yet to meet a client with seven of those). Her marketing expertise is balanced too, spanning everything from pharmaceutical to fast food. Seeking balance? Find Katie.

Maggie Hylton

Senior Account Manager

Maggie is living proof that creative people don’t just work in the creative department. I mean, when you’re a mix of culinary school, business school and period drama fandom, creative things are just bound to happen. Like, for instance, attending Renaissance Fair as a zombie Anne Boleyn. Or being able to look at a fridge full of currants, hot sauce, GMO tofu and baby corn and saying, “sweet, a little kitchen alchemy and dinner is served.” Of course, Maggie covers a lot of other things around here, like business, marketing and media strategies, to name but a few. Turns out being able to apply creativity to account service is a bit of alchemy as well.

Sierra Hunter

Assistant Art Director

While the other kids were deciding which brand of paste tasted best, Sierra was deciding that a career in the arts was in her future. Which is good, because, as it turns out, paste goes horrible with her ever-present iced vanilla latte. Sierra says that a slice of tiramisu or cheesecake, on the other hand, works perfectly with the aforementioned caffeinated goodness. Oh, and speaking of working perfectly, Sierra’s impeccable design aesthetic, love of tackling problems with creative visual solutions and general all-around positive vibe goes perfectly well with co-workers and clients alike. And we’ll raise a vanilla latte to that. Cheers!

Lauren Hilboldt

Director of Project Management

Every circus needs a Ringleader, that person who keeps the show moving along. Lauren basically helps scope and track every project in the agency and makes sure the right people are doing the right thing, on any given project, at any given time. Sounds easy right?

You might expect a Project Manager to be part prison guard, part IRS agent, but you’d be wrong. Rather than forcefully serving work subpoenas, she serves up hugs and encouragement.

Claire Hansen

Project Manager

Claire makes more bread than anyone at DMH. Now, don’t go looking for a low-interest personal loan, we’re talking actual bread. You know, sourdough, French, Italian. Flour and yeast and such. So, no loan, but she might hit you up with a perfect brioche if you play your cards right.

As for her job as Project Manager, Claire makes sure the rest of the agency plays their cards right. It’s most assuredly like juggling cats, but Claire does it with such grace and skill, we cats don’t even know we’re being juggled. When she’s not juggling us, she’s juggling time between her friends and family, perhaps breaking bread. And, lest we forget, she has the best, if not only, ‘burned my knees on noodle ramen’ story. Just ask her.

Eric Gach

Director of Technology

Tech-savvy doesn’t even begin to describe Eric’s expertise in computer science. Since a young age, he’s been captivated with the workings of things and would spend hours tearing apart and reassembling computers, just to take a closer look. As a back-end developer, Eric helps manage the server-side of our technology services and is multilingual when it comes to programming languages – and self-taught, at that! His passion for the fast pace of the digital world spills into a fascination for cars and racing. Coding is like his own virtual racetrack. Eric is a website warrior, but he’s also an avid traveler, thrill-seeker and comedian at heart.

Emma Emke

Senior Account Manager

Emma Emke exudes empathy. Ok. Now that we’ve gotten that pesky alliteration out of the way, let’s talk about Emma. Let’s talk about her love of planning things out to the smallest detail. Even her vacations have an Excel spreadsheet. No. We’re not kidding. But it’s that keen eye for detail that makes her such an asset to our client partners as a Senior Account Manager. I’s and T’s have no chance of being undotted or uncrossed. And that means when she gets things done, she gets them done right. Need proof? Have her walk you through her 10-step process for making the unassailable tuna sandwich. Oh…and that ‘exudes empathy’ thing? We weren’t kidding about that, either.

Wade Callow

Search Specialist

Wade is a huge fan of wide-open spaces. Which makes our no-offices, everybody-in-one-big-room floor plan a natural fit. Although he’d much prefer wider, more open, outdoor spaces with all manner of flora and fauna. Kind of like the rolling hills of his childhood in Weston, MO. It’s also a natural fit that this small-town boy loves the freedom of running his accounts, using his skills to improve each penny of spend. A self-professed hobbyist, Wade also enjoys beating the living daylights of anyone foolish enough to challenge him in video games.

Kim Butler

Accounting/Controller

For someone with the word “Controller” in her title, Kim is delightfully agreeable. When she’s not running our accounting department, she’s running – literally. She’s done countless 5Ks, 10Ks, and even a half marathon. Kim is also a passionate KC sports fan and calls cooking and baking her favorite hobby. This glowing bio will cost her a dozen chocolate chip cookies delivered to her favorite copywriter.

Isabelle Brown

Art Director

We have a theory the expression “calm, cool, collected” was created because of Isabelle. Maybe it’s her ready-steady demeanor. Or the fact that she plays enough instruments to be her own traveling band. Or, heck, maybe it’s the fact that both her thumbs are double-jointed. As a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, Isabelle operates with an imaginative lens through and through. And, as a young creative, her sleeves are so full of tricks that we’re trying to start taking wardrobe pointers. Illustrations? Book binding? Check, check, check. Her experience ranges from letterpress printing to the entertainment team at Nickelodeon. And, because we know you’ll ask, no, she never got slimed.

Travis Boyett

Senior Production Artist

Travis Boyett is fast. And not just in that ‘he was a college track athlete fast’ sense. We’re talking about a production artist who works at the speed of light without breaking a sweat (though he may wear out a computer mouse or two). Travis also likes to cook. Not, as you might think, fast food, but rather some seriously tasty foodie food. For crying out loud, he not only has a sous vide, he knows how to use it. But let’s get back to that whole ‘fast’ thing. It’s a good thing your boy is quick, because how else would he find time to cook, do some serious scale model painting and write and illustrate his own comic book all while making sure every single t is crossed and i dotted for his client’s projects?

Lauren Bockelman

Director of Social Media

Is it a safe assumption that when someone’s life goal is to drink wine from as many countries as possible, they’re an automatically likable person? In Lauren’s case, absolutely. And while we support goal-oriented people, we double support the grape, so this pairing was a no-brainer. Lauren joined DMH as a senior account manager, bringing with her agency experience as well as an understanding of the client side of the biz, where she led the marketing efforts of a local coffee brand. She also brought a passion for French fries and a mini Aussie puppy, so yeah – we’ll raise a glass of Slovenian Syrah to that.

Jared Bergeron

Senior Art Director

It seems like every time people walk by Jared’s desk you hear them say, “Oh, that’s cool!” It happens enough that we’re pretty sure he’s not just lucky. His “man of few words” persona belies a creative fluency informed by his travels around the world. Ask him about his mural project in Belfast or stories about his family in the Philippines. Then again, you could just walk by his desk to see the next cool thing.

Jim “Cheese” Aylward

Creative Director Emeritus

First of all, who doesn’t want to hang out with a guy named “Cheese?” He’s got to be fun, right? The answer is absolutely – which is why we had to keep him around, even post-retirement. Cheese’s impact on the ad community in Kansas City and beyond is nothing short of awe-inspiring. In his decades of copywriting and creative direction, he’s contributed to countless award-winning campaigns and mentored creative leaders all over the world. In 2018, Cheese deservedly earned the accolade, Creative Professional of the Year. Life as a retiree is anything but tiresome for Cheese – he spends his days hanging with his many friends and extended family, drinking ice-cold beer, sending funny emails and outplaying your wit, typically donning a Hawaiian shirt (wait, nothing has changed!)