What makes Merewif different?
We aren’t just a crisis communications firm, we are a comprehensive crisis management firm. In fact, Merewif is the only firm of its kind supporting the video game and table top game industry. From risk analysis to crisis management and communications planning, to training, in crisis support both for comms and operations, and Critical Incident Stress Management support…we cover it all.
Intentionally set up to be agile, we set out to build every plan directly to our customers needs and do not give you out of the box templates to struggle with. With more than 30 years of experience between our consultants on everything from pandemics to plane crashes, data breaches, to violence in the work place, we have the experience that matters.
Merewif is a veteran and woman-owned boutique company that takes on limited clients so that we can truly focus on you and your needs.
With two consultants and a office manager, we also work with a network of industry experts under strict NDAs so we can be your one-stop shop for all your planning, training, and response needs.
We also do not share the companies we work with without explicit permission, so if you are looking to get references for our work please contact us so we can privately provide you with a list.
About Ana
Ana Visneski’s career started in the U.S. Coast Guard. Not only did she learn to bet on herself, she excelled by having the courage to do the unexpected. She attributes this unusual ability to think differently and try things to her success. It’s also become her mantra: That looks impossible, I want to try it.
Now as a go-to expert and sought-after keynote speaker and trainer in all things crisis communications and crisis management, this is what fuels Ana to tackle challenges and overcome them. Her unique brand of honesty enables her to cut through the noise and get to the central issue in order to address it. In other words, she lives to build flexible adaptable resilient people systems in order to fix the unfixable.
Ana’s career has been formed by making huge changes to organizations that are resistant, even allergic, to change — finding that middle ground to get to the solution without anyone feeling completely left behind.
She’s literally written the book on unconventional leadership (F*ck it, Watch This - coming soon!) and believes that if you plan for everything to be a crisis, then you can avoid things becoming a crisis.
She currently teaches Crisis Communications at her alma mater the University of Washington in Seattle for the Communications Leadership Graduate School.
When she’s not finding new ways to apply technology to crises, Ana plays video and tabletop games (Cult of the Lamb, Balder’s Gate 3, Pandemic) and also helps design tabletop games (currently working on two).
Some of her accomplishments include:
Overseeing crisis communication responses for major disasters from Hurricane Katrina to the BP Oil Spill
Head of Global Disaster Response for Amazon Web Services: Built their Critical Event Protocol, a comprehensive crisis response plan including internal and external communication operations
Principal for AWS Global Disaster Response: Oversaw the technical operations for applying AWS technology to disasters including Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic, developing a comprehensive crisis management plan
Crisis management work for companies like Bungie and Wizards of the Coast
About Mac
Thomas McKenzie (Mac to his friends) graduated from Milton Hershey School as a journeyman printer before enlisting in the Navy as a Mineman at the end of the Cold War, where he specialized in underwater weapon systems and received a free cultural education in Scotland, Sicily, and Spain.
After enlisting in the Coast Guard as a Public Affairs Specialist and working his first case in Dutch Harbor, Alaska (Selendang Ayu, 2004) he earned his way into the Service’s response community and deployed for Hurricane Katrina and the BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill, among others. Mac then landed his dream assignment – PIAT (Public Information Assist Team), a deployable four-person disaster response component of the National Strike Force where he became Incident Command System (ICS) Type 1 PIO qualified.
He spent four intense years responding to and overseeing crisis communications as a first responder for major disasters: Hurricanes Harvey and Maria, the Refugio Beach oil spill, a railcar explosion (Mount Carbon, West Virginia), two shipwrecks, a magnesium fire, a jet fuel spill, and an Ebola threat aboard a cruise ship to name a few. He partnered with and trained representatives from oil, pipeline and cruise ship industries as well as FEMA, EPA, NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and federal, state and local law enforcement and first responders.
He logged more than 100 hours teaching emergency crisis and risk communications, basic media interaction, and the ICS Joint Information Center model to members of the national response community as well as public information officers from various branches of the Department of Defense. Somewhere along the way, he found time to self-publish a science-fiction novel.
Retiring from the military in 2018, he accepted a position on Amazon Web Services’ product launch team helping developers release new products in machine learning and artificial intelligence before returning to college full-time to chase his dream of being a science fiction author. He’s currently pursuing a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from George Mason University and working on a handful of novel and novella projects.
Mac has played Dungeons & Dragons with the same party since 2018 and has survived Tomb of Annihilation, Curse of Strahd, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden, Call of the Netherdeep, and Wild Beyond the Witchlight and finally managed to reach level 12 in Ingress. He’s lived in nine states, been a bartender, a telemarketer for Highlights for Children magazine, the lead photographer for the Department of Homeland Security, and quoted verbatim in newspapers nationwide.
About Brandon
Office Manager
For years Brandon has dedicated himself to the multifaceted roles of producer, educator, and performer. Holding an MFA in acting from the University of Georgia, he brings not only a wealth of experience and passion but also a keen eye and task-oriented mindset crucial for
transforming creative ideas into engaging realities.
His journey includes roles such as the Associate Artistic Director of Crossroads Repertory Theatre, Artist in Residence at Saint Mary of the Woods College, Casting Director for Earplay Studios, and the Executive Producer for Critshow Studios - each position reflects his skills at
chaos coordination and the ability to ensure the timely delivery of projects.
As an educator, he has spent years imparting knowledge through classes and workshops, covering topics such as team building, improv, and the art of public speaking/performance - and as a producer, he has facilitated the creation of hundreds of hours of award-winning audio and video content.
Brandon is thrilled to join the Merewif team, eager to discover fresh avenues for utilizing his artistic and organizational prowess.