The Mariner Crew
Mariner Media attracts, hires and retains the finest creative talent available and provides extensive opportunity for our staff to continually educate themselves and remain on the cutting edge of technology. We are poised in the long term, to take advantage of all new technology and employ that technology to the benefit of our clients. Our strength is in our staff. No one person can do everything, but collectively we can do nearly anything... this is our competitive strength, coupled with superior client services and customer communications.
Andrew Wolfe
Andy is the agency Creative Director. He has extensive and varied experience in advertising development, marketing, promotion and publishing.
Wolfe began his career as a graphic artist and cover designer in New York City. He moved on to be a photo journalist and foreign correspondent, then a public relations writer and photographer. Andy left the big city and engaged in a community newspaper and magazine publishing career that took him from coast to coast as a financial turn-around specialist and marketing consultant. He received over 36 state, regional and national awards for photography, copy writing, marketing, advertising and annual report writing. In 1988 he was the recipient of the General Excellence Award for Newspaper Publishing from the National Newspaper Association.
By avocation, Andy is an award winning builder and designer of wooden boats. In his spare time you'll find him fly fishing or playing banjo at the Old Time music jams. He resides in Buena Vista with his wife, Rosemary, and their grandson, Connor.
Woody Sadler
Woody is vice president, crew chief and organizational master of the Mariner Companies. He has been a Certified Fundraising Executive for the past ten years. Before becoming a partner in Mariner Media, he was president of Woody Sadler and Associates, a fundraising consulting firm. In his spare time, he is an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering at the Virginia Military Institute.
Woody retired after serving 28 years in the Marine Corps at the rank of Colonel. He became involved in marketing, advertising and fund raising as the executive director of the Lexington Downtown Development Assn. and Director of Development for the George C. Marshall Foundation. He has served as president of the Virginia Downtown Development Assn.; founded the Rockbridge Area Community Foundation; was district chairman, BSA; and currently serves on the boards of many volunteer organizations in the Lexington area.
Christopher Johnson
Johnson was distinguished as an art student at Virginia Commonwealth University by first being selected to exhibit with the Society of Illustrators, New York, New York, then having two pieces of his work displayed at the show, an almost unheard of accomplishment. He was also nominated and attended the Illustration Academy at the Ringling School, Sarasota, Florida.
A Lexington native, Johnson began working with Mariner Companies, Inc. in a summer student graphics position in 2006, and continued to work during breaks in his school schedule. He created the original art and illustration of AKELA, the Cub Scouts recruitment program mascot; created several local and national corporate identity campaigns; web graphics for one of the company's international clients, Multi-National Resources, Inc. (USA); website and outdoor advertising graphics for the New Hampshire GOP; and the illustration for the Old Time Music Jam at the Virginia Horse Center.
Jennifer Law Young
Jennifer's strong background in visual journalism includes nearly a decade of experience as an award-winning photojournalist. She was an editor for international news agencies where her excellent organizational skills were honed under high-pressure deadline situations. Her award-winning photographs have appeared on the pages of the world's major news publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, Newsweek and Time magazines.
In 2005, Jennifer and her husband photographed and authored the best-selling visual presentation of the area Rockbridge: A Photographic Essay. Jennifer is also the co-founder of The Evans-McCan Group, a non-profit documentary production company. As the producer of "Stolen Years," she oversaw the budget, arranged usage rights, conducted journalistic research, and the on-camera interviews for the 60-minute documentary. This Emmy award-winning film aired nation-wide on PBS to critical acclaim. Recently Jennifer was a featured speaker and panelist as part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History lecture series "Reel Americans."
Jennifer has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and Journalism from Baylor University (1987) and post-graduate study in Graphic Design at the University of Colorado. Jennifer resides in Lexington with her husband, Bruce, and two daughters.
Charles J. Ober
Charles is the agency Art Director. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Charles studied illustration art at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (now the University of the Arts). After service in the U.S. Navy, he settled in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area of Virginia. For four years he operated an advertising art studio, then for 30 years worked as an advertising artist, art director and creative director for agencies in southeastern Virginia. During this time he freelanced as a light show artist/producer for discotheques, concerts and business presentations from North Carolina to New York. He also operated a visual arts studio, creating stained glass works, paintings and photography.
Charles resigned from agency affiliations to open Word Weavers, a creative and desktop publishing service that operated for 10 years. His professional awards include a National Addy Award; a Gold Medal from the New York Film & TV Festival; Best-in-Shows from advertising and art-related exhibitions; a Desi Award from Graphic Design magazine; and various other honors from printing, advertising and art organizations. He now resides in Glasgow, Virginia with his wife, Marjorie.
Rick Britton
A map artist, author, and award-winning historical journalist, Rick founded Mariner’s publishing division in 2005. Rick is a leading authority on Thomas Jefferson, and the Civil War in Virginia, and is frequently called upon to deliver talks as well as guide tour groups across the Old Dominion’s many hallowed battle sites. In another life, Rick served as marketing director and art director for Iron Crown Enterprises, another Virginia-based publishing firm. Rick lives in Charlottesville with his wife, Victoria, and two rather corpulent felines. He and Victoria are very happy to be living within walking distance, literally, of their three gorgeous granddaughters: Savannah, Sophia, and Sienna.
Judy Rogers
Judy is Mariner's skilled copy editor and proof reader adding her 'mindful' eyes and expertise to bring our final productions to perfection. She utilizes her strong communication skills in assisting writers and editors with a broad range of publications.
Judy has years of experience in the scientific, pharmaceutical, and marketing industries. After discovering a talent for promotion, she was led from the laboratory bench into the marketing department.
With a B.S. in Biochemistry and Medical Technology from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, Judy began her career in biochemical research at Applied Science Labs, Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Through the years, Judy was Advertising and Promotion Manager for a generic pharmaceutical company and the Director of Marketing for a videoconferencing equipment distributor.
Judy resides in Buena Vista with four critters and travels as often as possible to visit her grandtwins near Cincinnati.
Corynn Hemmings
Corynn is an avid lover of all things “book.” She handles all the upfront details of the agency. Originally from the Mount Snow Valley in Vermont, she and husband, Jon, were camping along the Blue Ridge Parkway and fell in love with the people and the scenery of Rockbridge County. They happily reside in Buena Vista and stay busy (very busy!) with their two children, the techy geek husband’s computer business, two dogs, and a cat. Other hobbies include photography, movies, music, community groups, and high tech gadgetry.
Pam Campbell
Pam was raised in Rockbridge county, but when she was old enough moved out to Californina for a summer of exploring the west coast. After that she moved on to Wyoming to get a AG Business Degree at the University of Wyoming.
She was always interested in business so she decided to open up a few of her own varying from motor carrier fleet management to a mortgage company. Her professional interests are business management and financial management.
When she has free time she will be out riding horses, hiking, and fishing anywhere she can with her son.
Emilie Davis
Emilie loves to tackle a challenge! Her first assignment as a designer involved crop dusting airplanes—It was a high flying success. She studied digital design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and is a graduate of Southern Virginia University.
Her recent work includes book covers, T–shirts, poster art, and flash movies. When she is not creating, she's chasing two young sons.
Joe Czekner
Joe is an award-winning designer with a degree in Visual Communications Design from Virginia Tech and currently works as a web designer for Mariner Media. He has had several advertisements put to print, and has received recognition in the Roanoke ADDY Awards for web design, packaging design, and animation. Throughout his time at Virginia Tech he acquired a broad knowledge of the principles of design and became skilled in several design based programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Flash. Moreover, he has become quite proficient with animation and modeling in Maya.
Who We Are
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