Our Team

EVP and queen of general problem-solving, Elizabeth Hightower has been with Stripes since the beginning. She has established frameworks for creative production and project management, and she continues to be an invaluable asset to clients and teammates alike. Pre-Stripes, she studied journalism at Texas Tech; she worked in nonprofit fundraising on accounts like Washington National Cathedral and Children’s Medical Center, and she also participated in a semester-long internship with the United States Congress. She’s a low-key superwoman.

As one of Stripes’ first clients, Brandon Cotter has been a believer in Stripes’ capabilities since the beginning. Brandon is a successful startup executive with a proven track record of building new ventures and exhibiting contagious energy for growth. Over the past 20 years, he has founded or co-founded numerous ventures including online retail, business services, visual search, SaaS applications, and digital publishing. He lends his expertise to Stripes in business development, partnerships, and coaching.

Born and raised in California, Ivan heads up Stripes’ media efforts from the L.A. office. Before his time at Stripes, Ivan honed his expertise in media at Starcom, OMD (Resolution Media), PHD, and RPA, by contributing to paid social efforts for accounts such as Mattel, Nissan/Infiniti, Hewlett-Packard, and Honda/Acura. Along with his agency experience, Ivan brings an entrepreneurial spirit, having started a longboarding-skateboarding company in his garage when he was only 18. He was a sk8er boi, so to speak.

With a background that spans advertising, fundraising, and higher education, Jason Mueller has been in the agency world for over 12 years. He’s filled client-facing roles in strategy, development, and consulting while working on such accounts as Bertolli, Texas Rangers, Dallas Mavericks, Salesforce, Columbia Business School and Texas Health Resources. He has proved instrumental in leading Stripes into new markets, and he continues to drive new business development. Jason has completed two masters programs, has a twin, and lived on a self-sustained farm as a kid. And his kindergarten teacher forced him to become right-handed. What could have been if he’d stayed a lefty? The world will never know.

A Dallas native and Baylor University grad, Derek specializes in direct response creative direction and brand strategy. And he embodies the Stripes philosophy: the marriage of data with beautiful creative. Prior to Stripes, he spent 16 years at Dunham+Company, a fundraising and marketing firm, working on accounts such as The Salvation Army, World Vision, Buckner International, and Daily Hope with Rick Warren. A dedicated husband and father to three awesome kids, Derek applies his strategic creativity to home renovation projects. He is currently in the middle of what has now become a two-year kitchen remodel.

Like many copywriters, Andy Benke got into the game in a bit of a roundabout way. He worked in various corners of the music industry, both performing and composing. And after his music degree segued into an MBA, he found himself employed by a startup that was to become one of the biggest independent music licensing firms in the world. Andy spent a few years in Berlin, Germany, composing music for films, launching a blog, and drinking lots of German beer. And then he returned to Dallas and began writing for Stripes. He’s done client work for a wide swath of brands and been published in Film + Music Magazine, and his music has been featured in branded visual content for Comcast, International Rescue Committee, and ENVE.

Stephanie is a Connecticut expat who hates the cold a surprising amount for a Northerner. So for her sake, we’re happy she found her way to Dallas where she launched her career in advertising at a nonprofit, followed by Beast Digital, where she fine-tuned her digital strategy skillset; and then Commerce House, where she contributed to healthcare, public radio, and aesthetic accounts. For our sakes, we’re happy Stephanie eventually found her way to Stripes, where she now leads a team of account managers and is the senior lead on several of our largest accounts. As it turns out, Steph is just as impressive outside of work. In her free time, she is an equestrian and a proper Italian chef. Not your average hobbies.

John “Jack” Grubner is a native Bostonian, a qualified paid social planner and buyer, and one of the most congenial guys you’ll ever meet. He manages media for a top five Facebook publisher and spends much of his time innovating emerging media markets such as podcast distribution and content subscription models. Before joining Stripes, he worked as a media specialist for FYI Television, Inc. and tracked ticket sales data for the Texas Rangers. He studied history as an undergrad at the University of Dallas and is an MBA candidate from Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business.

Holding a bona fide university degree in advertising makes Maegan Jernigan an outlier amongst the Stripes crew, and we’re so much better for having her on the team. After graduating from Boston University, she joined Zimmerman Advertising and spent two years doing programmatic marketing on the Nissan account, while helping manage over $80 million in advertising budget. Her time at Stripes is primarily spent on lead generation and B2B accounts. She’s contributed heavily to building a strong social presence for brands that have historically had none, and she has accomplished huge things for our GSB client – managing campaigns for 40+ executive education programs.

One of our more tenured team members, Elizabeth Kerin has worn many hats since arriving on the Stripes scene three years ago. In that time, she has managed accounts and built strong client relationships, proved critical in driving Stripes’ growth in our largest and most profitable vertical, and helped increase Facebook likes for a media personality from 20K to over 4 million. She graduated from the University of Dallas with a degree in art history.

Amy Klembara is our resident peacemaker and process advocate. Before her role as Traffic Manager, she worked on the accounts team managing projects across all of our verticals. Today she’s responsible for helping our teams work together effectively and harmoniously which is, in our opinion, what she was born to do. Amy’s past experience includes time with DFWChild Magazine, Fidelity Investments, and studying at Texas A&M University. BBC murder mysteries and interior design are her jam and, funnily enough, so is making her own preserves. Jam, as it were, is her jam.

Kerry Lisicki is Stripes’ first HR Manager! After graduating from the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, she worked with Saks Fifth Avenue, followed by Trunk Club. As an HR Generalist, Kerry is skilled in Employee Relations, Recruiting, Employee Engagement & Process/Policy creation. Her vision for Stripes (which we all LOVE) is to keep building an awesome team, land on the perfect snack/drink assortment for the office, and continue to make this a place where people love to spend their days.

Working primarily on conservative NPO accounts, Carolyn Mackenzie manages Stripes’ largest and most profitable vertical. Her clients spend over $4 million in media per year and continue to grow that budget year over year. In addition to her account management prowess, Carolyn takes pride in her vast knowledge of the wizarding world of Harry Potter. She’ll gladly school you – so watch out.

Josh graduated from USC and most recently worked for a creative entertainment agency creating social media content for Universal Studios and Hulu. His background in social media content helps him bring creative new ideas to paid advertising. Fun fact: Josh hates touching food with his hands. Yep, he eats pizza and even french fries with a fork and knife. The one exception? Tacos.

Mary hails from the mitten of the United States: the great state of Michigan. Before she began working at Stripes, Mary studied history and business at the University of Dallas. She also worked for John Buxton, an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow, designing and running ad campaigns. One of the cool things about Mary is she’s deaf in one ear.

A Texas native, Emma graduated from the University of Dallas with a degree in politics, and then she moved to Washington D.C. to work for the U.S. House of Representatives. During her time on the Hill, Emma primarily focused on communications and messaging for Rep. Randy Weber. Here at Stripes, she puts her background on the Hill to good use, focusing primarily on Stripes’ political clients. In her free time, Emma enjoys planning her upcoming wedding and a glass of good Cabernet Sauvignon. In a past life, Emma says she ran the steeplechase, whatever that means.

Dilya may very well be the only art director in Dallas with a Russian degree in biotechnology! Having grown up on a military base two hours north of Kazakhstan, Dilya emigrated to the U.S. in 2013 while working as a designer at a marketing firm. She then worked as lead designer for The Blue Fish Japanese restaurant before moving to TRIdigital agency in Plano, where she focused on MSP clients. In her free time, Dilya and her husband enjoy spending time with their 2-year-old daughter and two dogs, a boxer and a border collie.

Tammara Rosales is a native Dallasite and graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas with her BFA before going on to work for Fan Cloth, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Loftwall. Her diverse design background in social media, apparel and logo design make her a huge asset to the team. Did we mention HOW FAST she is? She spins out designs in record time. Outside of Stripes, Tammara spoils her Akita as if he were a human. 

Casey Tilson is the asset we’ve been waiting for our company’s trivia team. She knows almost everything someone could know about Pop Culture and she’s a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. That’s two whole trivia categories covered. Casey also does competitive horseback riding (whoa) and is an account management pro, coming to us from Commerce House, where she worked on Texas Health, Galderma, Hotels.com, and higher ed clients. Casey graduated from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville with a Bachelor of Science in Business Admin – Marketing and a minor in Spanish and Business Management. When she’s not cheering for the Cowboys, Casey’s probably scheming another trip to Europe, where she’s visited 12 countries in the past three years. Another whoa.

Born in Vietnam and raised in Oklahoma, Kim attended the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a degree in Advertising with a Business minor. Prior to Stripes, Kim contributed to OKC Thunder’s social media presence, the OU Medicine, Children’s Hospital, and Stephenson Cancer Center accounts at Staplegun and the Jeep and Toyota accounts at Skyline Media. Unlike the rest of our accounts team, Kim is fluent in Vietnamese. Bạn có khỏe không?

Shanelle, a New York native, is one of a few team members at Stripes with a degree in marketing. After graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas, she worked for Advantix Digital, where she ran paid and organic social for clients — including Grafton-Fraser, the University of Texas at Arlington, Pinot’s Palette, and PlainsCapital Bank. Shanelle is a self-proclaimed introvert and picky eater who enjoys long walks through Target. She also reads the reviews before buying anything. We consider ourselves lucky to have her on the team!