1.26.21 | read time: 2 min
Our 2020 Westie Awards Results are In!
116 & West
Our first ever Westie Awards went down Zoom-style. Although it had to take place in the digital world, it still left us feeling proud of our teammates who stood out this year. While we couldn’t have chosen a more difficult first year for our 116 & West brand, we still crushed it. But in 2020, our work, our team, and our company as a whole were made better by these people:
Rookie of the Year: Vanessa Cummings
Vanessa came to us early in the year, just weeks before we all left the office for the safety of our homes. Vanessa not only had to navigate a new job and a new company remotely, but she also had to take the lead on one of our biggest accounts while one of our teammates took maternity leave.
Vanessa was promoted to Account Executive just months after she started—and for good reason. As a coworker, Vanessa is always ready for anything and is quick to learn new things. She’s fun and engaging but is also highly professional. She asks the right questions and is great at helping our team do the best work for our clients.
GrowMoore: Annie Timberlake & Kelsey Selis
Our GrowMoore award celebrates teammates who have shown incredible growth and development in their careers. This year, we had two employees who demonstrated their ability to take on new challenges successfully.
This year, Annie was given a promotion to Integrated Media Buyer. In this role, Annie has shown how much work she can take on (it’s a lot!), how strategically-minded she is, and how efficiently she works. Annie has proven that she’s more than capable of taking on more responsibility and has consistently done so by exceeding what was asked. She’s done a fantastic job in this role and has become someone our entire team relies on.
Kelsey was also promoted this year to Art Director. In this role, Kelsey has taken on leading the design of our social media channels and has also become a key player in creative conceptualizing. She has also proven she has great new ideas for strategy and can be a leader on the creative team.
Kelsey is one of those people who are willing to go without sleep to meet a deadline. She’s also insanely creative and can make anything look amazing.
Westie of the Year: Julie Bixler
In 2020, Julie took on the role of managing our media team. As Director of Integrated Media, Julie is responsible for the media strategy and execution for our clients. She knows the heck out of the media landscape. This helps her know-how and when to make the right moves. She’s also creative and smart, so she’s always looking at new ways to help our clients reach more people in the right way.
Julie works incredibly hard and took the lead on the media team without a hiccup. She’s taken on the work of two additional roles this year and continues to put her heart and soul into making strategic media placements for our clients. She’s made a huge impact on our clients and for our agency, so this award is well deserved. We’re so proud of her.