1.24.23 | read time: 3 min
2022 Employees of the Year
116 & West
2022 Employees of the Year
Happy 2023! We’re hitting the ground running with several new projects already in the works. But any preview of the new year would be remiss without a moment of reflection.
2022 ended with holiday celebrations in Boise & Spokane, to enjoy one another’s company without deadlines in the back of our minds. As we’ve done for many years, we celebrated some of our stand-out employees with our Westie Awards. These awards are a mixture of management nominations and staff votes, aimed to identify the individuals within our company who have impacted the team and our agency. And the winners are…
Rookie of the Year: Each year, we’re reminded that our recruiting is on point when it is so difficult to identify just one Rookie of the Year. We hire remarkable people, so it’s hard to set one apart from the crowd. Our Rookie this year is not new to her vocation, which is extremely apparent in her mature approach, collaboration, and work product. Erin McCarthy joined us last summer and has been integral to our team since the day she joined. As our primary copywriter, she is the lead on writing across mediums and the thought-engine behind new business proposals and marketing strategies. Everyone loves working with Erin and the perspective she brings to our creative solutions. She also started a Westie Word Nerd channel to share her brilliance with us on the reg. Congratulations Erin!
GrowMoore: this legacy award honors our previous company name and founding partner. The GrowMoore award celebrates employee development and personal improvement. Typically, this individual has taken on new responsibilities, learned new skills or software and continues to show a commitment to the team by honing their skillset and focusing on continued growth. The recipient of the award this year, Christelle Lyman, is a repeat honoree. She continues to sharpen her creative approach and this year, tackled the world of website design. She is a seasoned professional, yet finds ways to continue to cultivate her craft. Christelle is the creative rock star behind our monthly promotional work for Kendall Auto Group and works hard every single day to meet tight deadlines and varied responsibilities. In addition, she runs our 116 Acts of Kindness program and has one of the biggest hearts you’ll ever find. She exemplifies our core values with her kindness, diligence and commitment. To say we are lucky to have Christelle feels like an understatement. She exemplifies the heart and soul behind 116 & West.
Our Westie of the Year award is voted on by the team, in addition to the nominations from management for the Rookie and GrowMoore awards. We ask our team to reflect on who they feel has most benefited the agency from a business perspective and enterprise level. This person is the one who constantly goes the extra mile, works their little fingers to the bone, represents the agency the best, or simply makes the days brighter. Through this process, we’re looking for the person our staff feels should be recognized for their contributions to the Westie Way. It was no surprise that our Creative Director, Kelly Knopp, was recognized as our Westie of the Year for 2022. Kelly exemplifies the type of leadership we value at 116 & West. He is a wonderful mentor and coach, but he is also IN the trenches with the team, getting his hands dirty, concepting, designing, learning new software, and constantly working to stay up on new trends, creative approaches and processes. Kelly has a unique ability to show up as a peer, a leader, and a mentor. His level-headed approach makes him the type of person you want in the foxhole with you. He’s a problem solver and a team player. Kelly has pushed our creative product and continually challenges our team to think deeper and not settle for anything. Thank you, Kelly, for making us all better.
With the incredible team we have built in Boise and now, Spokane, the challenges that come our way this year can’t derail our motivation, creativity, and drive for success. That’s just how we Westies roll.