“Thank you for making this small publisher’s work in the audience development arena so much more bearable. I certainly wish every vendor I had worked with were as patient, as creative and as responsive.”
Judie Kamien, Chief Development Officer, Springfield Daily Citizen
Meet the team that works for you
Ashley Woods Branch | Vice President, Growth
Ashley Woods Branch joined BlueLena as Vice President, Growth in June, 2024. As a member of our leadership team, she leads the growth of our publishing community, supports client and industry successes by leading strategic initiatives that advance long-term sustainability, and grows association and platform partnerships that benefit our client…
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Austin Williams | Technical Support Manager
Austin joined BlueLena in June, 2020 as Technical Support Manager with responsibility for the initial platform configuration, user training and systems integration during new client onboarding. As part of the Agency Services team, Austin assists customers with on-demand support requests and issues resolution. He also manages internal data workflows between…
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Christine Holbert | Audience Engagement Manager
Christine Holbert joined BlueLena in March, 2022 as the Audience Engagement Manager where she works with newsrooms to identify and communicate their value propositions, training them to win readers over through storytelling about their mission and journalism. Christine is a communications professional who specializes in fundraising and engagement campaigns. Prior to…
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Daniel Williams | Founder/CEO
Daniel Williams is the Co-Founder and CEO of BlueLena. He is an experienced entrepreneur and senior media executive who has been an industry leader in audience-driven media management for over two decades. Daniel began his career with the McClatchy Company and has held management roles with the New York Times…
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Judi Kamien | Senior Strategy Consultant
Judi Kamien joined BlueLena’s consulting practice to assist nonprofit news organizations with end-to-end business strategy and organizational fundraising development. For thirty years, Judi has worked with smart, talented people to create and develop welcoming, empowering, and successful nonprofit brands and businesses. Most recently, as founding Chief Development Officer, Judi helped…
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Kai Crutchfield | Strategy & Solutions Consultant
Kai joined BlueLena in May, 2022 where she assists publishers in the transition from onboarding to strategy execution by leveraging our complete product offering, including tools for audience activation, engagement and monetization; and partner solutions including email acquisition, social media marketing, newsletters referral programs, e-commerce promotion and other services. Kai…
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Katie Kutsko | Strategy & Solutions Consultant
Katie Kutsko joined BlueLena in November, 2023 as a Strategy & Solutions Consultant where she collaborates with independent media publishers to grow audiences and revenue, equipping them to take full advantage of BlueLena’s tools and services. Katie has more than a decade of experience in local media and has spent…
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Kimberly Spencer, CFRE | Strategic Advisor
Kimberly Spencer joined BlueLena in September, 2023 as a Strategic Advisor where she focuses on developing CRM systems tailored for newsrooms. Kimberly Spencer, has over 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, with a focus on fundraising and executive leadership. Her journey is highlighted by transformative roles blending fundraising,…
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Laurie Truitt | Senior Strategy Consultant
Laurie Truitt joined BlueLena in February 2024 as a Senior Strategy Consultant where she supports subscription-based publishers and focuses on accelerating growth across reader activation, engagement, conversion and brand advocacy along with guiding the ongoing lifecycle marketing and pricing strategies on behalf of our publishing clients. Most recently, Laurie served as Vice…
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Mariangela Salmerón Avilés | Strategy & Solutions Consultant
Mariangela Salmerón Avilés joined BlueLena in February, 2024 as a Strategy & Solutions Consultant where she collaborates with independent media publishers to grow audiences and revenue, and equip them to take full advantage of BlueLena’s tools and services. Mariangela has over a decade of experience working with clients on growth…
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Megan Wofford | Sr. Strategy & Solutions Consultant
Megan Wofford joined BlueLena in November, 2021 as Agency Services Manager to oversee the deployment, integration and ongoing optimization of marketing automation technology and data analytics to drive audience and revenue growth for publishers. In October, 2022 she was elevated to Sr. Strategy and Solutions Consultant to provide guidance and best practice…
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Ned Berke | Chief Strategy Officer
Prior to joining BlueLena in January 2021, Ned Berke served as Program Director, Audience Development at the Center for Cooperative Media. In that role, he provided consulting, training and strategic services to local, regional, niche and investigative news publishers to build a lasting framework for audience growth and sustainability. Today,…
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Ryen Frazier | Projects Coordinator
Ryen joined BlueLena in August, 2020 as Projects Coordinator where she assists in process engineering and workflow optimization to ensure seamless new client onboardings and internal operational efficiencies. In addition to her part-time role with BlueLena, Ryen is a PhD candidate in the NC State University Department of Forest Biomaterials,…
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Samantha Bennet | Vice President, Operations
Samantha Bennet joined BlueLena as the Vice President of Operations in September 2023 where she develops scalable solutions and programming to meet the needs of newsrooms as well as the team’s internal processes. She has over a decade of experience managing relationships with local newsrooms through training, audience development, cross-functional…
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Stephen Ratkovich | Sr. Strategy & Solutions Consultant
Stephen Ratkovich joined BlueLena in November, 2021 as Sr. Strategy and Solutions Consultant to provide guidance and best practice approaches to drive audience and revenue growth for publishers by leveraging BlueLena’s portfolio of technology solutions, partnerships and managed services. He previously served as Customer Success Manager at Upland BlueVenn, where…
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Tammy Williams | Office Manager
Tammy joined BlueLena in January, 2021 as Office Manager, where she is responsible for general accounting, client invoicing, accounts receivables and human resourcing. Prior to joining BlueLena, Tammy served as Inside Sales Manager with the Whitlock Group where she was involved in the project scoping, procurement and account support for…
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Teresa Ristow | Audience Strategist
Teresa Ristow joined BlueLena in February, 2023 as Audience Strategist to assist publishers with identifying and implementing audience and revenue growth opportunities through our entire suite of products, services and solutions. Teresa is an experienced journalism and media professional with a diverse background including roles as an editor, reporter and…
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Waqas Ahmed | Data Solutions Engineer
Waqas Ahmed joined BlueLena in January, 2022 as Data Solutions Engineer where he leads our data integration, API library, and unlocks strategic insights and actionable information by connecting publisher site analytics with the first party data compiled through registration, activation and ongoing engagement. He previously served as Senior Head of…
Continue reading…James S. Gold | Managing Partner
James Gold is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of BlueLena. He has served in senior management positions with US media companies for over thirty years. He is the former SVP/CMO of the New York Times Regional Group, and prior to that held executive roles with American City Business Journals, KPMG…
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