Who we are

Christy Schlake began her career in Dayton, Ohio, working in the incentive business developing marketing and training programs. She worked for several companies, serving in the capacities of account management, writing, sales, marketing management, and creative direction. In 1993, Christy stepped out on her own, starting her business as a freelance writer and marketing consultant. Over the years, Christy has developed expertise in the areas of strategy and sales promotion, as well as working in diverse areas of marketing, including both business-to-business and consumer promotions; traditional and web-based training; and strategy and branding. Industries she has worked for include pharmaceutical, medical, manufacturing, financial, telecommunications, and consumer products.

 

 

 

In 2005, Christy took over as owner and president of WriterGirl & Company. Since then, WriterGirl has grown to include a national network of creative professionals with skills ranging from corporate communications to e-learning, with an emphasis on interactive marketing. As president of WriterGirl, Christy functions as client liaison and project manager, in addition to providing senior-level strategic counsel for WriterGirl clients.

Colleen Cannon has more than 25 years of experience in consumer marketing, new product development, and event marketing and management. For more than 10 years, Colleen served as Corporate Creative Director for an in-house creative services group. She hired, trained, and managed a team of six account managers/copywriters and five graphic designers who created all the marketing and creative materials for the company’s publishing divisions. Colleen was directly involved in concept development, copy/design review, and creative execution for hundreds of projects targeting a wide variety of niche consumer markets. Colleen next took on a senior management role as General Manager of Conferences and Ancillary Products, with bottom-line responsibility for a corporate division of two conferences and sixteen competitions in art, writing and graphic design. She created annual marketing plans and budgets, managed expenses and developed new products to drive top-line revenue growth and profit. As Vice President/Group Publisher, Colleen was responsible for bottom-line financial performance for 7 special-interest consumer magazine titles with combined revenues of $12.9 million. She developed strategic marketing plans and budgets, and directly managed editorial and advertising sales functions for all titles. Colleen has since stepped out on her own and now works exclusively through WriterGirl & Company, offering creative consulting services that include everything from strategic planning to proposal development to copywriting for both print and the web.

Colleen brings strong conceptual and strategic thinking, spot-on creative thinking, and a healthy dose of common sense to every project she is involved in, all with the goal of ensuring that results exceed client expectations.

Amy Dietz is WriterGirl’s senior writer. She brings a broad background in public relations, marketing, writing and event coordination to the WriterGirl team. Amy graduated in 2004 from the University of Dayton with a degree in Communications and a minor in Marketing. Upon moving to Cincinnati, Amy worked as the PR/Event Coordinator for Joseph-Beth Booksellers. At Joseph-Beth, Amy was responsible for planning and promoting in-store book events for big-name authors like Giada De Laurentiis and Jack Welch. She also wrote the monthly newsletters and coordinated media coverage for book events.

Amy started at Dan Pinger Public Relations in 2005 as an Associate Account Executive and eventually worked her way up to Account Executive. At Pinger, Amy worked on accounts including the HoneyBaked Ham, Hart Productions, totes Isotoner and Campbell Hausfeld, providing public relations and marketing services to clients. Amy also was a part of the Cirque de Soleil account team in 2006, managing media coverage and opening night of the Quidam performance in Cincinnati.

Prior to joining WriterGirl & Company, Amy worked as an Associate Client Strategist at Empower MediaMarketing. At Empower, Amy worked on the Cincinnati Bell and Check ‘n Go teams, providing media planning and support for digital, print, outdoor and television advertising.

As a Senior Writer for WriterGirl & Company, Amy assists with project management in addition to her writing responsibilities.

Stephanie Helfrich is perhaps the most important part of the WriterGirl team because she handles the money. Stephanie is a CPA, in addition to handling all of WriterGirl’s accounts payables and receivables. She is wonderfully detail oriented, so if you have any money questions, send ‘em along to Stephanie@writergirl.com.

 
In case you were wondering…

While most of the team members at WriterGirl & Company are women, you may occasionally find yourself working with one of our WriterDudes. Superheroes are gender neutral.