North Star Staff

Don McEachern has been growing brands and leading teams for more than 20 years. His experience includes working for multi-national advertising agencies as well as nationally recognized creative boutiques. During his time in the ad world, Don put his stamp on some of the world’s most famous brands including Goldkist, Hawaiian Tropic, Suntory Bottled Water Group, Trump Plaza, Panasonic and Lanier Worldwide. For his efforts he received numerous awards, including a prestigious national Effie for marketing effectiveness and a Clio for excellent creativity.

Don has become the recognized expert in the exploding field of community branding. With a process that combines research, strategy and creative, he has helped create unique and effective brands for big-name cities like Anchorage, Alaska; Providence, Rhode Island; and Williamsburg, Virginia. That same process and passion has also been applied to small cities that will soon be household names such as Uvalde, Texas and Warrensburg, Missouri. He is a sought-after speaker on the topics of branding and the formation of private-public partnerships to fund branding.

Don lives on a horse farm in Nashville, Tennessee, where he spends time with his wife and three children riding horses, paddling kayaks and playing tennis. As of yet, no member of his family has been branded.

After beginning her career in community branding with North Star in Nashville, Amy headed to the Pacific Northwest and the agency McCann-Erickson Seattle, where she managed consumer and trade advertising campaigns for the agency’s largest national account and one of the nation’s largest retail banks, Washington Mutual. Amy then went back home to Colorado and joined Vanguard Communications, where she managed marketing and public relations efforts for various nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lucky for us, Amy knows a good thing when she sees it. When the opportunity to rejoin North Star developed, she jumped back on board as Community Brand Supervisor for the company’s Colorado office. In this capacity now helps destinations west of the Mississippi reach their fullest potential. Customers and prospects alike benefit from her keen strategic sense, her communication skills and her genuine concern for producing the best product for our clients.

A graduate of the University of Colorado in Boulder, Amy is an outdoor extremist – always looking for a challenge. Whether skiing a double black diamond or hiking a fourteener, her mission is to conquer new frontiers.

Nancy Campana began designing formally at Chico State University and then California College of the Arts. But design has been a natural part of her life since she was young, when she could be found drawing in the margins of her piano music instead of practicing Greensleeves.

Her award-winning work ranges from logos for all types of businesses — from restaurants to corporations — to websites and book designs for major publishers such as Harper Collins and Random House. Her designs and branding visuals for North Star are recognized for their clean, simple and impactful communication. They’ve helped shine the spotlight on communities such as Peoria, Arizona; Lancaster, California; Sebastopol and Santa Rosa, California.

Most recently, after an inspiring trip to Providence, Rhode Island with North Star, she was hands deep in paint, making collages. She lives in Northern California with her husband and daughter.

Oakland, California CVB. Tucson, Arizona CVB. Long Beach, California CVB. Arlington, Texas CVB. Hilton Hotels. The Hotel Queen Mary. Disneyland Hotel. Northwest Conventions, Inc.. Political Campaign Management. Fertile ground from which to cultivate thirty years of diverse experience and a skill set rich in expertise.

DiMario led Arlington out of the September 11 aftermath with a new brand and helped it into an epic transformation. She branded Long Beach creating a national market for their expanded convention center and established the city as a destination. She turned Tucson’s hot summers into a hot meeting deal and helped Oakland’s economy recover from the 1989 Bay Area earthquake. Add ten high performance years in hotel sales, convention planning and political campaign management and you have the makings of a unique and valuable perspective.

Working with North Star Destination Strategies, DiMario & Associates adds a valuable on-the-ground tactical implementation component that promises to help our clients live their brand promise.

Tod Fetherling has dedicated his 16+ year career to interactive marketing in the travel, healthcare and beverage industries.  Currently Tod works with North Star to guide the interactive research and database aspects of the Community BrandPrint program.  In this capacity he oversees Tapestry programming, reporting and analysis as well as database development and management, website development and online survey administration.

Prior to his work with North Star, Tod served as president of Relegent, LLC, a company focused on the online marketing and content needs of hospitals and schools. Other experience includes interactive marketing positions ranging from Senior Vice President to Director to Manager for companies like First Consulting Group Infrastructure Services, Galaxy.Com, The Health Network, Brown-Forman Beverages Worldwide and Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation.

During his impressive career Tod has received numerous awards such as the Trevor A. Fisk Young Marketer of the Year.  Honors have also been bestowed on many of the websites he created including Columbia/HCA’s Top Rating from Excite and recognition as a top business-to-business healthcare site by AdAge. The site was also selected by U.S. News and World Report as one of the best eight of 1995.

When asked what career achievement he is most proud of, Tod says it’s a toss-up between his redesign of the ever-popular Jack Daniels website and the internet broadcast of the live birth of a child, which attracted 1.4 million voyeurs (woops, I mean viewers).  Tod resides in Brentwood, TN with his wife and children (none of whom were publicly birthed).  

For more than 18 years, Greg Fuson has been helping businesses understand their market through research. He has developed his skills in research design and management for both quantitative and qualitative research.

Greg has managed research studies for a number of national clients including Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, Starbucks, Lowe’s, Ruby Tuesday, O’Charley’s Restaurants, and Coca-Cola. Greg also has extensive experience in the tourism industry working with clients such as The City of Pigeon Forge, East Tennessee Marketing Partnership, Clarksville Montgomery County Economic Development Council, the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, Gaylord Entertainment, Nashville Shores Water Park and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Greg has also worked with other travel and tourism destinations such as Charlottesville, Virginia; Valdosta, Georgia; Warrensburg, Missouri; Williamsburg, Virginia and Anchorage, Alaska.

Greg received his Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in the field of Marketing from Belmont University. Despite his impressive resume, Greg is not a dry numbers guy. His self-described dream vacation involves riding a train, salmon fishing and lots of good food.

Seré is an award winning copywriter and creative director with 20 years of experience. She has worked for advertising, marketing, and design agencies throughout California, and for a wide variety of clients, including Mervyn’s, Hewlett Packard, Hampton Inns, AutoDesk, and Centex Homes.

With her strategic creativity and lifelong passion for both words and places, Seré seemed destined to join the North Star team. Her ideas have helped shape many of our community brands, including Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, and Lancaster.

When she’s not concepting and writing branding strategies and campaigns or teaching someone to drive (she and her husband have four teenagers), she loves to read, write fiction and play Scrabble. And just so she has a hobby that doesn’t involve the alphabet, she hikes the trails throughout Sonoma County. (But keeps a pen and paper in her pocket, just in case…)

Organization is the name of the game for Katie Hollenkamp. In this capacity, Katie coordinates and controls the voluminous quantitative and qualitative research that serves as the foundation for each North Star client’s BrandPrint process. She also serves as Account Manager for a number of clients, guiding them through each step in our 24-week program. In addition, Katie applies her considerable computer, analytical and design skills to preparing high-tech three-dimensional presentations of the research.

A graduate of Western Kentucky University, Katie has a degree in Advertising with a concentration in Account Services. Her passions include running, sunning, cooking and organizing the North Star offices.

After beginning her career as the Marketing Manager for a Nashville Landmark, the Corner Market, Samara joined the North Star team in 2004. As North Star's Marketing Director, Samara Hughes is responsible for leading business development efforts. A certified Tourism Marketing Professional, Samara is a savvy account planner capable of submerging herself in the business of tourism and community development. This not only gives North Star clients someone who can speak their language, but a valuable asset in understanding their community’s strongest opportunities.

Samara is a member of the Economic Development Committee for the Largo-Mid Pinellas Chamber of Commerce where she serves as an advisor for the many marketing and branding issues that play an important role in the economic growth of her community.

Samara is a graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where she earned her Bachelors of Science in Advertising with a minor in Business. As a U.T. alumni it’s no wonder she’s a classic football fan. Her business acumen -- honed in North Star’s halls -- comes in handy for her after-hours role as the commissioner of a “killer” fantasy football league. Be careful, she plays to win.

A native of Seattle, WA, Brooke has worked in a number of major markets including San Francisco and Atlanta. Her career experience also features time spent with Target Corporation as well as several fashion magazines, advertising agencies and record labels.

Brooke brings a pure and classy approach to work done for North Star clients. This results in outstanding creative that effectively breaks through media clutter with a deceptive simplicity and style. A graduate of the renowned Portfolio Center in Atlanta, her work has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally in awards competitions and publications like Communication Arts. Outspoken with a true performer’s heart, you’ll find her writing and recording songs with other music industry professionals when time allows.

For more than 20 years, Christi McEachern has made her mark as a marketing writer, editor and strategic planner. Her primary areas of emphasis include health care, travel and tourism, and community branding and she has worked with numerous clients including Days Inn, Ramada, American Express, UPS, UPS Worldwide Logistics, Cellular One, AmSouth, Parisian, BellSouth Business Systems, the Arthritis Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, HealthNet, TennCare, Physicians’ Mutual, HCA, Matria Healthcare, Schering-Plough and Merck.

Christi’s writing, strategic and client management skills are now put to good use. In addition to overseeing the care and nurturing of clients through their BrandPrint process, Christi applies her keen strategic sense to the development of strategic direction for community branding projects.

She received her BA from Whitman College, a private liberal arts institution in Walla Walla, WA and her master’s in Communications from the University of Georgia. Always up for a challenge, Christi is currently training for an iron woman competition (or at least talking about it), much to the amusement of her three children.

A numbers person from the get-go, Angie has more than 20 years experience in banking, accounting and finance.

Most recently she worked for the Midwest Hospital Division of HCA where she managed payroll and benefits processing for more than 2,000 employees. Prior to her time with HCA she was office manager and accounting administrator for Central South Enterprises, franchisor of Ponderosa Steakhouses. There she managed accounting and financial statements for franchise restaurants.

Angie brings her financial expertise to bear at North Star as Director of Finance. In this capacity she handles all accounting including preparation of financial statements, payroll, benefits and taxes.

She is extremely busy with her computer, adding machine and financial statements . . . although as a strategic and creative shop few of us understand what she is doing with all those numbers. But being in charge of payroll does make her quite popular.

Angie got her degree in business administration from Cumberland University and Middle Tennessee State University. She is married with two children (in college) and lives in Nashville.

A native New Englander, Ted started his 15-year career in Boston, MA. He was trained at such respected creative agencies as Arnold Advertising and Pagano, Schenck and Kay, under the watchful eye of several industry legends. He has also served several stints as Creative Director at the renowned creative factory Babbit & Reiman, award-winning agency Earle Palmer Brown and southeastern powerhouse West Wayne.

Ted’s extensive tourism and travel experience give North Star a creative foothold unmatched by many. Some of his past work includes Days Inns of America; the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism; USAir; Pinellas County, Florida; Georgia Department of Tourism; Orient-Express Hotels; Hyatt Hotels and Wild Dunes Resort, SC.

Ted is one of North Star’s strongest advocates for the idea of having a single collaborative team work on research, strategy and creative. According to Ted, an amazing thing happens when the people who develop the strategies work hand in hand with the ones who develop the ideas based on them – the transition is seamless; the work reflects strategy and the strategy is inherent in the work.

One of North Star’s most talented graphic designers, Dori has regional and national experience developing logos and brand identity packages for an impressive roster of corporate clients including American Express, Cellular One, BellSouth, Parisian and Schering-Plough. To North Star clients, Dori is known as the brains behind many of our community logos. She has developed brand identities for Glasgow, Kentucky; Gwinnett and Henry Counties in Georgia; Mountain Longleaf Region, Alabama; Mesquite, Texas; Warrensburg, Missouri; McKinney, Texas and others.

Dori’s experience expands beyond identity development to include marketing collateral such as brochures, annual reports, advertising, newsletters and direct mail. She has won numerous awards for her work through the Public Relations Society of America and the American Marketing Association.

Dori received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Communication Design from Purdue University. She considers her greatest works of art to be her two young children who recently cheered her on as she ran her first marathon.

An experienced public sector communications professional, Davi brings more than 27 years of high-level strategic thinking and planning to the North Star team.

Davi’s early experience involved editing and publishing a variety of communications including Tucson Magazine, Tucson Homes and Tucson Dining.

From there she became the public information officer (PIO) for Cobb County Parks and Recreation and was quickly promoted to PIO for the entire county. In that capacity she created and managed a marketing/communications program for a county with a population of 550,000 and an annual budget of $480 million. Davi directed the strategic rollout of the county’s first 911 emergency system and the first public transportation system. She also directed successful communications programs for a variety of political campaigns and pubic referendums, including a $400 million sales tax referendum for road improvements. For her work, Davi received the “Award of Excellence” from the National Association of County Information Officers and a County Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties.

Most recently, Davi has provided marketing and communications services for a variety of public and private sector clients including Dow Chemical, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners and numerous chambers of commerce.

Davi has a BA in psychology from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington and a Certificate of Public Management from the University of Georgia. She is currently working on branding her teenage son in hopes of attaining a college soccer scholarship.

Jason Swanson has made a career of enhancing tourism communities by providing strategic planning and implementation assistance to governments and private-sector tourism businesses.
During graduate work at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, the Travel Industry Association of America and the National Tour Association recognized Jason for his achievement in the industry. In addition, Jason has been selected to make keynote presentations and lead seminar sessions at several major tourism conferences.

Jason has worked for clients in the restaurant, hotel, country club, tennis center, spa, convention center, retail, office, marina, golf course, destination, and government sectors in over 40 markets throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and Asia. He also serves on the Southeast Tourism Policy Council, the governmental affairs arm of the Southeast Tourism Society (STS).

Originally from Indianapolis, Jennifer began her career in branding with Orlando Regional Healthcare, a non-profit healthcare organization in Orlando, Florida. There she honed her tactical communication skills, focusing on website and new media marketing. Next, it was on to Nashville for Jennifer, where she joined Vanderbilt University to manage branding, identity, and website development projects for departments within the International Office.

As Community Brand Supervisor for North Star, Jennifer helps destinations build on their abilities to turn aspiration into achievement. Clients benefit from her ability to think both creatively and methodically, and appreciate the warmth and thoughtfulness of her manner, which she simply calls “Hoosier hospitality.”

Jennifer is an Honors graduate from Ball State University in her native Indiana, with degrees in Advertising and French. It’s no surprise then that Jennifer adores French food, wine and cinema. When she’s not eating baguettes and brie, she enjoys scrapbooking, watching professional football, and taking in the Nashville music scene.