Meet our people.
If you're an Emma customer, it's very likely you've gotten to know one or more of the people pictured here. Perhaps you've met several of them. Perhaps you know one person quite well but have only spoken briefly with two others. Here's your chance to put a face with a name, or two names with two faces, and so on and so forth.
Lauren Johnston
Lauren is a graphic designer at Emma, and the bad news is that she has a 12-pack-a-day habit. The good news is that it’s a gum habit. The other good news is that they’re not 12 packs of Big League Chew. And the even better news is that it’s not grape-flavored Big League Chew, which, to be quite honest, is downright gross. In addition to her gum connoisseurness, Lauren is also known for her hair ornamentation and comic timing. Those things typically go hand in hand, right? Lauren hails from Austin and attended the high school on which the movie Friday Night Lights is based. (Her dad continues to be an extra in the TV series.) She holds a degree from Belmont University and promises to cut back to 10 packs a day at some point. We’re pretty much out of good news on the gum-chewing front.
Sofia Karagadayeva
Sofia is a part of our QA team, helping test and troubleshoot future Emma features. She alternately delights and disturbs her colleagues by continually using hovercat.gif as her image of choice when creating test Emma campaigns. Originally from Russia, Sofia is one of those kind-hearted people adored around the Emma office as much for her constant smile as her savvy fashion sense. One colleague reports that she carries more shoes in her car than most department stores have in their inventory, which, come to think of it, may explain that constant smile of hers. The knowledge that a wide array of footwear choices is just a parking lot away does a lot to boost one's morale. Prior to Emma, Sofia brought her QA and fashion savvy to LexisNexis and, prior to that, the Tennessee Department of Children's Services.
Jennifer Kasdorf
Jennifer, known around here as Crigs (short for her maiden name, Crigger) is on our graphic design team. One of two Emma design squad members who are twins (Kelley Kirker is the other), Jennifer has an amazing sense of design and color, not to mention a superb use of the comic phrase, "That's what she said." She's also a prolific knitter and could theoretically dress the entire design crew in different scarves every day. Much to the chagrin of groups situated near the design crew and owning cameras, that has not happened. Originally from nearby Columbia, Tennessee, Jennifer holds a BFA from Middle Tennessee State University, where she worked as an art gallery assistant as part of a four-year academic service scholarship. She later worked as an in-house graphic designer for independent record label here in Nashville. In news that's virtually impossible to segue into, Jennifer's husband Aaron looks a lot like Moby. At least that’s what she said. See? It's not as easy as you might think.
Laura Key
Laura helps lead our business development efforts in New York City, home of Emma's latest satellite office. When she was based in our Nashville office, she also led the Emma Bike Team, an unofficial cadre of Emma staffers who bike to work. The EBT only had two members at the time, which made for very quick board meetings but slightly awkward bike team picnics. Laura also enjoys hiking with her husband (Garrett) and dog (Ninja), skateboarding, and brewing her own beer. Laura’s also an avid concertgoer - so much so that in spite of not even really liking Jimmy Buffet, she’s seen him perform no less than six times. Laura is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and has a degree in philosophy. Philosophically speaking, is a cheeseburger in paradise really better than a cheeseburger in, say, Ohio?
Kelley Kirker
You have to like it when a request for quirky tidbits about a person results in a list that begins: 1. She hates cheese! 2. She’s a professional organizer. Rarely do those two characteristics sit side by side on a list. Well done, Ms. Kirker. Kelley is our Emma Host, offering a helping hand as well as a warm smile to our new folks. You'll have to trust us on the smile. In addition to various stints as an administrative assistant, Kelley also founded her own organizing service, Organize Nashville, and continues to help folks turn their houses, closets and other spaces into pillars of neatness. She is a graduate of Columbia International University in South Carolina and nearly tried out for the TV show The Bachelor, where her hatred of cheese, yogurt, sour cream and closet disarray would, one would think, have played out quite nicely in front of a national television audience. Everyone likes pulling for someone who hates messy dairy, after all. Kelley is believed to have one of the more infectious laughs at Emma (which, given our high ratio of infectious laughs, is quite a feat), and when she isn’t working she enjoys listening to old-school R&B (think Diana Ross), NPR (think “This American Life”) and Beyoncé (we miss Diana Ross already). Incidentally, The Bachelor tryouts in Reno were the same day as the Emma interview Kelley chose to attend instead. Guess that’s a rose for us, Chris Harrison.
Emily Konouchi
Emily leads Emma's support team, overseeing our efforts to provide ridiculously great service to Emma customers. What's not ridiculous is Emily's striking resemblance to Emma (it's the haircut and glasses), though the same has been said about a number of people, like Allison, and Annie, but not so much about Steve. Emily studied Latin and Greek literature at Agnes Scott College (show-off) but now has to settle for reading books in plain old English as a member of a local book club (still a bit show-offy). Speaking of literature, she is an Anne of Green Gables fan, having watched the film version of AOGG whenever she had the flu as a child. By the time Emily had recovered from the illness, Anne would invariably be all grown up, having transcended her humble beginnings. It’s the Cliffs Notes version of the story, but you get the idea. Emily is also a fan of Ben Folds and all things Beatles, even, dare we say it, Yoko. Turns out that by the time Emily had recovered from the illness, Yoko would have transcended her humble beginnings to break up the greatest band of all time. It's a much sadder story than AOGG.
Carolyn Kopprasch
Carolyn played lacrosse for three years at Vanderbilt University, so hiring her as part of our agency relations team has given people around the office lots of resolution on questions such as, "What is lacrosse, exactly?" She no longer carries around a stick with a basket on the end, but one thing Carolyn does do frequently is give stellar advice about email marketing, having worked in the industry even before she joined Emma's agency relations team. Carolyn is passionate about both salads and candy and is currently working on a lifestyle book tentatively entitled A Sugar Cube a Day: Your Guide to Daily Balance and Infinite Harmony Through Finding Your Place on the Salad-Sweets Continuum. Look forward to such recipes as Arugula Salad with Jelly Beans and Radicchio with Wild Lemonhead Crunch. And be forewarned that playing lacrosse can take your life in all kinds of unexpected directions.
Kelli Liszka
Do you know anybody who owns Christmas tree lights for their car? Yes, you do, and you're reading about her now. Kelli is a part of our customer support team, where she regularly delights customers not only with her knack for troubleshooting and friendly service but also with videos of her dance moves which she, masquerading as a mysterious "Leslie," will never regret having posted here. Kelli's kinesthetic talents also extend to the kickball arena, where a portion of her uniform, we're told, involves a tutu. Prior to Emma, Kelli worked at artist management shops around Nashville, supporting the marketing efforts of up-and-comers like Kanye West, Tim McGraw and Alicia Keys. Kelli is the only notary public in the Emma shop and, we're assuming, the only tutu-wearing notary public in the world. Kelli holds a degree in advertising from the University of Southern Indiana, where she graduated summa cum laude. Summa cum laude is Latin for with a tutu.
Kinney Littlejohn, Jr.
Kinney is our bookkeeper, serving on our operations team. A Tennessee State University grad, Kinney majored in Economics and Finance and (rather appropriately) served as vice president of the Economics and Finance Club, known for their wild parties where “wild” is typically replaced by “math.” In the working world, Kinney has spent time at FedEx, Comcast and Bank of America, and he spent six years as a Navy jet mechanic based out of Jacksonville and Italy. He loves travel, reading, running, movies and tomatoes, which you probably didn't expect to see after “movies” but there it is. Kinney will always ask for extra tomatoes on his sandwich or extra pico de gallo on his burrito, and if it's some sort of sandwich-burrito you might see a slightly confused look on Kinney's face for just a moment. Kinney also loves to laugh but is admittedly terrible at jokes. It's sort of like the cobbler whose family has no shoes, but on second thought not really at all like that.
Jenny Mahmoudi
Jenny is a research specialist on our UX team. Part of our Portland office, she rides her bike to work and spearheaded Emma's effort to subsidize staffers' use of public transit. She even had Emma's Portland shop audited for its "greenness," which, we later found out, had nothing to do with wall color. (Weird, right?) Jenny is a big fan of The Big Lebowski, which actually just means she's qualified to sit at the same lunch table as Matt Thackston, Emma's Top, Number One, All-Time, Don't Even Try Calling Yourself a Fan, Big Lebowski Fan (Matt came up with that title). Still, her Dude credentials are strong, having engaged in a group quote-along at a Lewbowski viewing at Austin's Paramount Theater. Matt is sooo trumping that in his head right now. Aren't you, Matt. Jenny holds a degree from Georgia Tech in electrical engineering and, prior to joining Emma Portland, spent three years working as an electrical engineer in Austin managing an R&D program to customize a nano-particle hydrogen sensor for a global supplier of electric utility monitoring equipment. Try saying that last bit after a few White Russians, why don't ya. The Dude most certainly abides.