Meet the Team
Sarah Best |
Kyle Freund |
Melanie Mace |
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Sarah Best (CEO/Chief Strategist) has won seven awards for her work including best use of a social media platform from Travel + Leisure Magazine. Her work has been featured in Mashable, TechCrunch, Crain's Chicago Business, National Geographic Traveler, Chicago Tribune, and other publications.
She was tapped to speak at Social Media Week for the MacArthur Foundation, was a SXSW Interactive Meetup host, and a US Travel Association conference speaker. She is an alumna of New York University and the University of Chicago, a Madison Downtown Rotarian, and is Secretary of the Board of New Harvest Foundation. An avid traveler, foodie, and multi-faceted creative, Sarah is also a poet who has been published in The Yale Review. She is a visual artist and film curator who has shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Hyde Park Arts Center (Chicago), Mana Contemporary (Chicago / Miami / NJ), Links Hall (Chicago), Chicago Cultural Center, and Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles). (LinkedIn) |
Kyle Freund (Senior Strategist) is a communications professional with over 15 years of experience in strategic communications and marketing for non-profits, NGOs, and sustainability-minded organizations and companies.
Freund began his career in university public relations before serving two years in the Peace Corps helping a cooperative of small farmers market lamb sausage. From there he launched a career helping international non-profits navigate the digital sphere developing and implementing social media and content strategies to find and engage their audiences. Kyle is English/Spanish bilingual and has extensive experience in the fields of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. He has provided media relations, communications guidance, crisis communications strategy, and messaging for a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to small-scale coffee farmers seeking to diversify their income. He is an award-winning writer and photographer born and raised on a small family-run dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. (LinkedIn) |
Melanie Mace (Account Manager) joined Sarah Best Strategy after 13 years working in higher education, with a recent focus on digital work. During her last two years at the University of California, San Francisco, Melanie redesigned a major website while staying at home part-time to raise her two young daughters. She oversees a wide variety of client accounts and is Sarah's second-in-command.
When she’s not filling the internet with photos of her kids, Melanie is enjoying all the beautiful beaches, parks, and wineries the Bay Area has to offer. She is an alumna of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Chicago, where she had the good fortune of meeting Sarah. |
Genevra Gallo-BayiatesGenevra Gallo-Bayiates (Writer) is a writer,career couselor, and social justice advocate with a passion for history and personal narratives. Genevra has a B.F.A. in Theatre Studies and an M.S.Ed in Educational Psychology, which has led to a work history spanning multiple industries, including for-profit corporations, nonprofit organizations, higher education, and the arts.
As a writer, her work has appeared in CMA Today, Time Out Chicago, the Chicago Red Streak, and Haymarket Books. Her playwriting work has also been published by Playscripts, Inc. and Commonplace Books. As a certified counselor, she has provided career counseling guidance and training to clients who are recent grads to seasoned professionals. Her expertise includes personality assessments, resume/cover letter/profile writing, and interview preparation. In her free time, Genevra works on racial and social justice initiatives in her hometown of Evanston, IL. She also enjoys visiting Wisconsin, exploring lots of historical sites, and hiking in state and national parks! |
Lisa ApplegateLisa Applegate (Writer) is a story sleuth. For more than two decades, she has helped media outlets, non-profit organizations, and businesses uncover their most compelling narratives and provide distinctive content that consistently engages and inspires audiences.
Lisa cut her teeth on high-quality journalism, reporting for The Roanoke Times for a dozen years before turning to freelancing. Media contributions include Parents Magazine, Oprah.com, Teaching Tolerance, and NewCity Magazine. Clients include Northwestern University, YMCA, and Witt/Kieffer. A graduate of DePaul University’s Master of Writing and Publishing program, she served as co-editor for "How Long Will I Cry," a first-person narrative collection about youth violence. She has lived, worked, or travelled in every continent but Australia, and welcomes any invitations down under! (But she will skip Antartica, thanks very much: It’s cold enough in her adopted home of Chicago.) |
Heather BokonHeather Bokon
(Executive Support) is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and spent 15 years as an administrative and executive assistant before striking out on her own as a virtual assistant. A member of the Rescue Desk team in Madison, Heather lives in the Midwest with her husband and 2 rescue dogs, where she spends her limited free time reading, blogging about books, and bingeing on Netflix with a glass of red wine. |
Elise SchimkeElise Schimke (Social Media & Community Management) is a graduate of UW-Madison and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Her dual knowledge of social media strategy and long-form journalism helps her tell impactful stories.
When she’s not writing, Elise is exploring Chicago with a camera and drinking more coffee than is advisable. |
Andy BestAndy Best (Special Projects Coordinator) is a key team member on special projects, including social media audits, reporting and analytics, and SEO optimization. He also provides bookkeeping support for our company's growing team.
A graduate of Dickinson College, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, when Andy's not working he's playing rugby for the Madison Minotaurs. |
Elise GoldsteinElise Goldstein (Fall 2019 Intern) is a sophomore at UW-Madison in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication studying Strategic Communication with a certificate in Digital Studies. She is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. At UW-Madison, Elise is the VP of Fundraising for TAMID Group, a member and co-founder of the Rotaract Club, a writer for The Daily Cardinal, and actively involved with UW Hillel. In her free time, she loves to be active and run outside, spend time with friends, and explore Madison.
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Additional Team Members
Summer Intern: David Jiang, Writers: Bilal Dardai, Trish Lambert.
Strategic Partners
In addition to the team members listed above, we work with a network of strategic partners who extend our team's capacity. These are relationships we've nurtured over many years, and we're happy to share our trusted network with you.
