Connie Risby, Principal, Marstrats, LLC
Connie Risby, the founder of Marstrats and a 37-year marketing veteran, is holder of a BS from Arkansas State University and a MA from the University of Oklahoma. With an experience base incorporating the complete scope of marketing needs and capabilities, Connie’s client list, both past and present, is a who’s who of national brands.
Woman Owned Business
DUNS Number: 963319830
CAGE Code: 62QK0
Team
Members of the Marstrats team have a three-decade plus history of servicing clients in the following sectors/specialties:
- Government/Military
- Recruitment
- Dealer/Co-op
- Consumer
- Retail
- Social Marketing
Team Members
Connie Risby
Connie, Principal of Marstrats, is a seasoned marketing and advertising professional. Her passion and expertise is strategic planning and developing strategies that deliver results for clients. By using her analytical skills, she is able to help you understand the target audience (media usage habits, attitudes, values, etc) to develop high-impact strategies/tactics to reach them most effectively and efficiently. Her 37 years of experience encompasses several industries, target audiences and multi-language advertising (French and Spanish). Her organization, project management skills as well as her attention to detail offers the knowledge and experience to delivery programs on time on budget. National clients she has worked for include Hardee’s, Macy’s, Edward Jones, U. S. Reserve Medical Corps, Panera Bread, Lennox Industries and more.
Jeff Fuelling
Jeff brings over 25 years of marketing, strategy and design experience to Marstrats. He is a veteran of the design and branding world with experience across a wide array of marketing channels including print collateral, advertising, tradeshow and brand management. Fuelling has built his career and reputation by leveraging the power of strategic design against business objectives to build brands. As a designer and director, he has successfully led marketing initiatives for clients such as Mark Andy, Texas Instruments and Ingersoll-Rand subsidiaries. For nearly a decade, Jeff led the world’s 5th largest financial services firm, A.G. Edwards, in their communications efforts and marketing initiatives, as Art Director and later, the firm’s first Brand Manager. Afterwards, he served as Senior Creative Director for Fleishman-Hillard public relations, then Executive Art Director for Group360. Now, Fuelling works closely with clients to develop brand positioning, core messaging, marketing strategies and design solutions. He has been recognized with design awards from marketing industry publications, including Print and Graphic Design USA. Jeff holds a B.F.A degree from Missouri State University.
Rich Heend
Rich has over 13 years of experience in marketing and communications, with an emphasis on healthcare recruitment and corporate communications. He has developed concepts, led creative teams and written copy for a variety of projects in a full range of media. Heend’s experience includes interactive websites, social media, public relations, television, radio and more. Rich’s work has won numerous awards from the Employment Management Association, the Legal Marketing Association and the International Association of Business Communicators. In addition, several ads he wrote were featured in the Creativity 29 advertising annual.
John M. Reichert
John is an accomplished, creative producer and director with over 15 years of multimedia production, marketing, and public relations experience. He is experienced in all aspects of production: writing, producing, directing and editing. Expertise in a variety of media formats: streaming video, commercials, corporate presentations, PR/Marketing, documentaries, dramatizations, VODs, location shoots, industrials, educational/training videos, web casts, live broadcast, live events, news packages, web and print design.
Susan Walsh
Susan has 19 years of advertising agency experience as well as 7 years experience on the media side at The Philadelphia Inquirer and KYW Television, a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia. She served as Executive Director of Business Development at NAS Communications, an agency of McCann Worldgroup, one of the largest communications companies in the world. She was the strategic account leader for many national accounts such as MasterCard, Verizon Wireless, and Hershey’s. She is passionate about digital and interactive media, social media, and building strong brands. Active member of Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association, Philadelphia Area New Media Association, National SHRM, Philadelphia chapter of SHRM, Human Capital Institute, and ERE.
Carol Sullivan
Carol has over 25 years of experience in healthcare/physician recruitment management and consulting. With a background in a broad spectrum of healthcare recruitment practices, her primary area of expertise is identifying and developing targeted healthcare marketing and recruitment campaigns designed to specifically meet the client’s needs and goals. Additionally, Carol is Past-President of the National Association for Health Care Recruitment and has served on the NAHCR Board of Directors for ten years.
Jon Fulmer
Jon has spent more than a quarter-century in the marketing and advertising business, having served a variety of clients in both the private and public sectors on a local, regional and national basis. A specialist in strategy development and an early adopter of the new media – Internet-based Communication Solutions, Jon’s primary role has been as a creative strategist and copywriter, forging breakthrough communications strategies and on-target messaging on behalf of each and every client with the two-pronged objective of maximizing return on investment in the short term and building brand for the long haul.
Strategic Partners
Melissa Reiss
Melissa is currently working as the West Coast Director of CBS Community Partnerships, and pioneered the Social Marketing Division for CBS Television in 2008. Her passion is helping organizations find creative ways to communicate critical messages that can improve people’s lives and the greater good of the community. She works with hundreds of non-profits, foundations, government and ad agencies on developing meaningful education, prevention, and awareness campaign while working with limited funding.
With her 10+ years of experience in cause related marketing, Melissa has had a direct impact on making our society a better place by creating campaigns that have busted meth labs, adopted children, arrested fugitives, helped families save their home from foreclosure and raised millions of dollars for non-profits.
Melissa’s mission is to continue to educate organizations on how utilizing the power of media and developing partnerships with CBS can positively impact people’s behavior even when challenged with budget restrictions. She currently trains a team around the country for CBS where she works on both the local and national level.
Melissa is proud to work for CBS, a corporation that embraces their responsibility to the community making it easier for “good” messages to reach the public. All of the CBS assets have been a champion of Melissa’s division and have made it a mission of their own to help organizations make a real difference in the lives of the communities they serve.
Becky Kip
Becky is the East Coast Director of CBS Community Partnerships, working with over 30 dedicated Account Executives and stations managers in CBS O&O stations to identify community issues and create marketing campaigns that bring about social change. She specializes in creating campaigns that have a national message and using CBS strength in each community to localize the message to so it has a greater impact.
As the Director of Community Partnerships she has worked directly with various government agencies in 9 states. Ms. Kip has deep understanding of fulfilling deliverables required by the Federal Government. She has been directly involved on programs such as Child Health Insurance enrollment (CHIPS) with the CMS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and currently is in the development stages of programs with Health and Human Services, EPA, HUD, CDC and Community Action Agencies among others.
To date, Becky has been instrumental in developing over 250 Social Marketing campaigns across the US and continues to maintain active partner relationships within local, state and federal government entities.
Edgar Calderon
Edgar is the Regional Campaign Director for AdzZoo Inc,-Sacramento Valley/Bay Area Region, helping small and mid size businesses reach their local customers base. Edgar brings with him community activism, professional public relations, and entrepreneurial resources to the team. Extensive knowledge and experience in: TV Events Production for multi-ethnic markets, including other media (Mobile, Print, Online, Radio, etc), Marketing, Financial Products Sales & Brokerage and a very well extended collaboration and relations within the California Sacramento Central Valley’s construction, agro-industrial business, and non-for-profit communities.
He has experience selling, producing and placing spots advertisement, brokering and producing relevant programming for viewership in Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese), Filipino, Hmong, Hindu/Punjabi, Russian/Ukrainian, Spanish and Vietnamese languages. Representing KBTV-CA/CrossingsTV at ethnic community organizations and chambers of commerce events.