Teaming Up for Success

Blending a creative eye with a drive for results, Emily loves developing strategies that deliver. Her passion lies in supporting businesses and local communities to help them thrive. When not working, Emily is often traveling across Virginia and beyond! 

Favorite Travel Memory

In 2023, I visited Belize and was absolutely stunned by just how beautiful it is. From the beaches to the rainforest, there were so many things to discover. We stayed at a local AirBnB and spent the evenings chatting with the host, learning about Belizean culture and history—and trying local produce right from his farm!

Lizette handles much of the onboarding, system troubleshooting and marketing for Odyssey Studios. When she's not powering away at a spreadsheet, she's finding new places in Dallas to beat the heat and attempting to take her cat on a hike.

Favorite Travel Memory

There are so many travel memories that I indulge in frequently, but by far my favorite to date has been exploring the depths of Japan and finding myself in the challenges faced with true culture shock.

Combining a creative and data-driven approach to our hospitality clients’ marketing needs, Camron's award-winning work on behalf of clients, including Hawks Cay and Hilton Sandestin, has resulted in significant revenue and performance gains. Camron is an avid foxhunter and lives on a horse farm with her husband, dogs, cats, chickens and horses.

Favorite Travel Memory

We drove the Ring of Kerry on St. Patrick’s Day and had the road to ourselves since tours were closed for the holiday. We were delighted to find authentic local festivals in the small towns along the route. The locals were so kind and welcoming, and the land is gorgeous!

Steve is a web developer with a knack for captivating animations. When he's not building sites, he's a seasoned symphony musician, and can be seen performing with orchestras across Colorado. Outside of work and music, Steve loves exploring breweries worldwide with his wife Jessica.

Favorite Travel Memory

During my recent trip to Seattle, I stayed with a local friend who provided us an insider's tour of the city's vibrant food and beer scenes. Beyond that, he offered invaluable insights into the distinctive cultures of various neighborhoods, enriching our experience and truly leaving a lasting impact on our visit.

Ashley works on the DMO content team with a variety of clients, including Colorado and Nashville. Though she lives near the mountains in Denver, she feels most at home by the ocean. In her free time, she enjoys dance classes, cuddling her three adorable cats and watching “Jeopardy!” with her husband.

Favorite Travel Memory

Visiting Paris with my husband twice — once while we were dating and the second time exactly 10 years later, when we recreated a photo from our first trip at the top of Notre Dame.

Nicole is well known for her detail-oriented approach and metric-driven mindset, which she leverages to create strategized, impactful media plans for her clients. Outside of her professional efforts, she enjoys indulging in her creative side through LEGO-building, crafting and cooking—hobbies that reflect her dual passion for creativity and precision.

 

Favorite Travel Memory

Though it started with an unexpected 26-hour airport layover, and almost missing the ship, it would have to be Greece island-hopping.

Leading all things content for Brand USA programs, Liz loves to explore too. You might find her in the Willamette Valley, Brooklyn or Puerto Rico. The Florida State grad’s passions include reading novels and poetry, listening to music, cooking, sipping craft beer and spending time with her partner, baby daughter and French bulldog.

Favorite Travel Memory

Ziplining in the rain in a rainforest in Costa Rica, then stopping afterward at the local watering hole for extra-refreshing beers.

Lisa's secret sauce is whipping up strategies that give businesses the best bang for their buck without skimping on impact. Plus, juggling ad budgets and performance metrics to ensure every penny works hard — it's totally her thing! When she isn't working, she's most likely planning her next dog-friendly vacation, enjoying concerts or attempting to golf.

Favorite Travel Memory

I got lost in an airport when I was 6. My mom told me earlier that day that if she would have named me, I would been Amanda — Mandy for short (my dad named me Lisa). A security guard found me crying and asked my name. I told him my name was Amanda, Mandy for short. It didn't take my parents long to figure out it was me, but by that time, I was happily eating an ice cream.

Juliana Contreras is a multilingual senior art director, guitar strummer, culinary maestro and garden enthusiast. Her art bridges cultures, while her heart embraces family and pets. She's a sailing aficionada with an aquatic irony: can't swim, yet conquers the sea.

Favorite Travel Memory

Costa Rica: Being awakened by waves and a serenade of birds was such an amazing experience. I can't wait to go back.

Kelby is a producer in Odyssey Studios, where she pulls all the pieces together for the next big photo or video shoot and brings creative visions to life. When not at her desk, she's likely in search of a great cup of coffee, delicious street snacks or a salty-spicy margarita. You may also find her paddle boarding, visiting a museum or exploring a neighborhood.

Favorite Travel Memory

Fresh coconuts and no internet on a remote island in Belize.

Lori is a paid search analyst on the hospitality team. She specializes in building and managing data-driven, results-focused paid search campaigns that deliver measurable success. Outside of work, Lori is deeply committed to animal rescue and usually has at least one foster dog or cat bringing joy (and sometimes chaos) to her home. She also loves to travel and explore all the beautiful sights the Pacific Northwest has to offer with her two dogs, Ripley and Lita.

Stacey is a graphic designer in Miles’ hospitality division. She's an empathetic learner who strives to solve design problems with the user's needs as her guiding light, always asking questions to challenge assumptions and understand pain points. In her day to day, you can find her designing for social, digital, web, print and more.

Favorite Travel Memory

It was a day full of walking, shopping and bonding with friends old and new in Portland, Oregon, and it ended with a visit to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. The memory of its beauty, the peace and the company I had with me bring a smile to my heart and I'd repeat the day without a second thought.

Hallie specializes in print layout design and loves taking on any "odd jobs" that get her dabbling in branding and logo work. When away from the design world she's likely lost in a book, at the dog park with her pit bull Winston, or hiking/camping Colorado mountains.

Favorite Travel Memory

Walking cobblestone streets to the art studio on an early morning, watching the small island-town come to life along the calm Aegean Sea; Spending my morning(s) painting in Greece.

Melissa has been creating, recreating and maintaining a diverse range of website projects at Miles now for 23-plus years and has expertise in web platforms and languages, server environments and database programming. She works remotely, making her home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with her husband and two children.

Favorite Travel Memory

ATV riding in South Dakota.

As part of the hospitality division, Susi is a master orchestrator who seamlessly brings together creative directors, designers, copywriters and clients. When she is not overseeing the production workflow from concept to delivery, she's planning a trip with her husband Peter to a music festival or winery, or to visit their three daughters who live in three different states.

Favorite Travel Memory

My daughter Meagan took me on an epic adventure searching for Tom Jones in Cardiff, Wales. Too much fun. (Never found Tom.)

Samantha brings 9 years of experience in destination marketing to Miles. When she isn’t busy supporting the Alaska and Madrid accounts, you'll find her on hiking adventures with her two dogs, Parmesan and Nelly, tending to dozens of houseplants, or paddleboarding on one of the 10,000-plus lakes in her home state of Minnesota.

Favorite Travel Memory

My favorite travel memory is learning how to whitewater kayak on the Yellowstone River in Gardiner, Montana. The power of the water is exhilarating — there is nothing quite like being at the mercy of the river, staying focused and using your own strength to float down nature’s roller coaster.

Yasaman works with stakeholders to blend design and technology sensibilities with strategic insights, an ability that has been honed over her previous career as an architect, where human-centric design principles were second nature. Having already explored 32 states, she's on a mission to explore more of the country's natural and cultural wonders.

A performance coordinator on the hospitality team, Jessica manages and optimizes paid social, paid search and programmatic campaigns to align with client goals. She is continually educating herself on the ever-changing marketing landscape through the digital-marketing masters program at Wake Forest University.

Favorite Travel Memory

I took an amazing trip to Costa Rica. Surfing, riding ATVs and deep-sea fishing were the highlights of the unforgettable adventure.

Krystal is a project manager who works with a variety of clients on everything from website and to creative and media needs and visitor guides. When she isn't working on travel-related projects, you can find her hitting the road (or air) for new adventures with her husband, three kids and adorable minpin.

Favorite Travel Memory

I spent two months road tripping with my family from Texas to Washington, hitting all of the national and state parks we could along the way. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Vivian brings the creative vision for videos of all kinds to life as part of the Odyssey Studio team. Outside of tinkering with video plans, you can usually find her fussing with her plant collection and spending time with her husband and two pet rabbits, Dallas and Charlie.

Favorite Travel Memory

I dropped my phone at Natural Bridge in Bryce Canyon. As it slid away on the snow like a mini toboggan, so too did my hopes of recovering the photos from my mother-daughter trip. But then help arrived: A very kind park ranger had just completed rappel training. Phone saved. New favorite memory made.

Laura is a senior content director who has developed everything from state visitor guides to brand voice guidelines. She is passionate about establishing best practices for inclusive content strategy. In her free time, this Austinite can be found kayaking, hiking and birding.

Favorite Travel Memory

Celebrating New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai with chanting Buddhist monks as the night sky filled with illuminated paper lanterns.

Jonathan is part of the strategy and insights team and specializes in website analytics. When he's not setting up data pipelines, you will likely find him enjoying the outdoors by a hiking trail or paddleboarding.

Favorite Travel Memory

My favorite travel memory is visiting Barcelona with my wife. Our highlights were visiting La Sagrada Familia and watching the show at the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc.

Jaime leads the ad operations team, which handles clients’ digital-campaign tracking, making it possible to provide insights and strategic direction for future campaigns. When she is not trafficking VISIT FLORIDA campaigns or perfecting ad-ops processes, you might find her outside with her Samoyed Jovie or fishing and kayaking down in the Florida Keys.

Favorite Travel Memory

I went to Italy in 2014 with my mom and grandma (three generations!) We explored Milan, Venice, Florence, Siena, Tuscany, Rome, Pisa and Cinque Terre. The coast is beautiful, and we also loved getting lost in Venice and stumbling upon places we would have never seen otherwise.

A content manager on the hospitality team, Tessa serves up strategic, thoughtful content for our clients. When she’s not putting together a content strategy or crafting an email or ad, she loves spending time with her family, dreaming up her next slow-travel trip or simply staying in and binging "Star Wars" with a giant bowl of pasta.

Amy is the senior account director that leads our Brand USA team. When she is not exploring new ways to reach international travelers, investigating opportunities to better organize our data or meeting with clients, she can be found walking mountain trails, listening to a new podcast or running through life with her young (and energetic) son.

Favorite Travel Memory

My husband and I visited Switzerland for the holidays a few years ago. We were having dinner at a lodge in a small ski village on Christmas night and starting talking to the couple sitting next to us. We discovered they lived only 45 minutes away from us in Florida (small world!) and ended up enjoying delicious glögg with them at a secret bar they introduced us to.

Chris is a designer whose work spans multiple clients and teams. He creates for print, web, html5 and logos, among many other things. When he's not head-down focused on design, you'll find him with his pug Mabel, in the kitchen, playing his bass or out frolicking in nature.

Favorite Travel Memory

I was in Norway for a celebration of my grandfather — his sculpture of Lincoln in Oslo stands as the only one by an artist other than Gustav Vigeland in Frogner Park. My best memory was a midnight row across one of the widest points of the widest fjord in Norway, the Geirangerfjord. Sunlight bathed the mountain peaks as we tried to outrace a gigantic oil tanker. We lived.

Mary is a content manager who works with destinations all across the country, from northern California to the Midwest. Off the clock, you can find her at the gym or in a yoga class, reading the next book on her TBR list or listening to live local music at her favorite watering hole.

Favorite Travel Memory

During a trip with my boyfriend to Laguna Beach, we went on a whale-watching tour. While we didn't come across any whales, we did find ourselves amid a mega-pod of dolphins. We were literally surrounded by thousands of dolphins for over an hour. Something I'll never forget!

Stephanie is a member of the destination optimization team, where she mostly gathers and analyzes data to help local businesses, as well as other tasks involving spreadsheets or the occasional VBA macro. Outside of work, she enjoys tabletop RPGs, indie video games, sewing and piano.

Favorite Travel Memory

I spent an entire day walking around Stanley Park in Vancouver. It was magical to know that we were in a major city but still felt like we were in the middle of deep woods.