About MSL Chicago

In the Loop is written by MSL Chicago, the Midwest hub of MSLGROUP. In the Loop highlights the expertise and interests of more than 30 public relations professionals who are passionate about the evolving world of online and offline conversations and communications campaigns.

At MSL Chicago, we’re in the loop when it comes to the latest PR trends, and we’re looking forward to sharing our insights with you.

Follow us on Twitter @MSLChicago.

Brad Wilks

  • MSL Chicago Title: Managing Director, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: M.A., Ball State University; B.A. Indiana University
  • Hometown: Monroe, Ind. (population: 800)
  • Interests: I like to read, garden, cycle and keep bees.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov – very funny satirical look at what happens when the devil comes to pay a visit to a town in atheistic Soviet Union.

Nancy Brennan

  • MSL Chicago Title: SVP, Director of Corporate Branding, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: Brown University
  • Hometown: New Orleans, La.
  • Interests: My daughters Jane and Kate.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena,” by Julia Reed – reminds me of home and makes me laugh every time I re-read it.

Joan Cetera

  • MSL Chicago Title: SVP, Director of Consumer Marketing, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Hometown: Grew up in Downers Grove, Ill. Currently live in Lisle, Ill.
  • Interests: Running – though I’m hardly a marathoner, gardening – will one day be Martha Stewart, baking – my goal is to master fondant, and my nearly 4-year-old son and 7-month-old daughter!
  • What I Enjoy Most about the PR Industry: PR, as a discipline, is very versatile and can meet companies’ communications needs in a variety of ways, which makes it an interesting and exciting profession.

Matt Dickman

  • MSL Chicago Title: SVP, Director of Social Business, North America
  • Alma Mater: Ohio University
  • Hometown: I’ve moved around a lot, so Chicago is my hometown now.
  • Interests: Spending time with my wife and daughter.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction: This would have to be the architectural cruise. You get a sense for the scale of the city and the importance of the landmarks. It’s a great way to pack in a lot of sights in a short amount of time.

Larry Larsen

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Vice President, Corporate Branding and Financial Communications
  • Alma Mater: MBA, Loyola University Chicago; B.A., Bucknell University (Lewisburg, Pa.)
  • Hometown: Naperville, Ill.
  • Interests: I love spending time with my family, golf, and my charity work. I aspire to travel more — Italy, Greece and Hawaii are my first stops.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Liar’s Poker,” by Michael Lewis.

Kevin Metz

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Vice President, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Hometown: Born in Washington, D.C., and also spent majority of time in Raleigh, N.C. and Dallas, Texas.
  • Interests: Trying new restaurants and the attractions Chicago has to offer, watching college basketball, playing soccer and all things UNC.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: the opportunities are endless as we live in a great city. Even thought we have great restaurants, museums, heritage of comedy, jazz and blues, I’d say most tourists visiting Chicago request and enjoy a stroll around Gold Coast and catching some amazing views from the top of the Hancock Building.

Gloria Delgadillo

  • MSL Chicago Title: Vice President, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
  • Hometown: Milwaukee, Wis.
  • Interests: Baking, biking and camping.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: The “Bean” (and if you can, get there early in the morning when you and your guests are the only reflections in it).

Katie Feltz, APR

  • MSL Chicago Title: Vice President, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: Ohio University
  • Hometown: Columbus, Ohio
  • Interests: Travel, music, reading classic novels – and hanging with my husband and toddler!
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: I love taking people out to explore Chicago’s many great, diverse neighborhoods – the food, the shops, the boulevards. Plus, I never tire of it!

Dawn McKenzie, APR

  • MSL Chicago Title: Vice President, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: M.A., Wayne State University; B.A., Michigan State University
  • Hometown: Detroit, Mich.
  • Interests: Hot air ballooning, travel, running along Chicago’s lakefront, Saturday morning visits to the Green City Market and keeping up with Chicago’s great chef and restaurant scene.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: The Segway tours are a lot of fun because you get a unique ride and can see so many of Chicago’s famous sites in a short amount of time.

Heather Marros

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Manager, Human Resources, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: St. Mary’s College (Notre Dame, Ind.)
  • Hometown: Colorado Springs, Colo.
  • Interests: Reading, hot yoga and running.
  • What I Enjoy Most about the PR Industry:  The creative and inspiring individuals who produce such amazing programming.

Jen Tatro

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Manager, New Business Development, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: Michigan State University
  • Hometown: Chicago, Ill.
  • Interests: Food, travel and sports. Reading books about food, travel and sports.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: Art Institute of Chicago (love the museum) and C-View (love the view and the cocktails).

Jeremy Berrington

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Supervisor, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: University of Oregon
  • Hometown: Native of Deerfield, Ill. – currently live in Roscoe Village.
  • Interests: Politics/political blogging, playing golf, learning about international cultures, travel, playing guitar and bass, listening to music and cooking.
  • Favorite Book and Why: Love “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Have been obsessed with Tolkien ever since I read “The Hobbit” as a little kid.

Fred Ligouri

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Supervisor, Automotive Communications
  • Alma Mater: Roosevelt University
  • Hometown: Bloomington, Ill.
  • Interests: All things automotive. I enjoying reading, writing, talking about and looking at cars. My favorite conversations usually involve words like displacement and torque. I loved childhood road trips with my family, and l am looking forward to doing the same with my own children.
  • Three Words That Describe Me: Inquisitive, earnest and approachable.

Katie Patterson

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Supervisor, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: Drake University
  • Hometown: Marion, Iowa, but I’ve celebrated five years in Chicago so consider this “home base” now.
  • Interests: Running and being active – leisurely biking, walks/jogs along the lake and dancing for fun. Traveling to new places – both domestic and international (South America is high on the list for 2013, we’ll see) and visiting a few repeat favorites (family in the Midwest, New York City, places with mountains!). Reading fiction interspersed with business books.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: Chicago Architecture Foundation’s river cruise tour. I recommend this tour so often that you’d think I work for CAF! The river cruise offers an insightful history on the city and one of its greatest assets – beautiful, diverse architecture that physically marks Chicago’s moments of the past century. Well worth it even if you could careless about the details since anyone can appreciate being on the water and seeing the city from a rare viewpoint.’

Lara Tokarz

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Supervisor, Digital
  • Alma Mater: University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Hometown: Frankfort, Ill.
  • Interests: Spending time with my husband and son, painting, reading, cooking, going to the gym, and searching for thrift store finds!
  • Three Words to Describe Me: Creative, Goofy, and Know-it-all

Stephanie Lewis

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Supervisor, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: University of Notre Dame
  • Hometown: Darien, Ill.
  • Interests: Chicago sports, live music, Spanish films, finding new restaurant gems, reading travel blogs and being a storyteller.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: love hosting friends when they visit the Windy City, and as a born and bred Chicagoan, I am absolutely wild for the city’s pizza. So when tourists come to town, I require at least two meals of pizza – thin crust for lunch at Vito & Nick’s on the South Side, and deep dish for dinner at Giordano’s. I’ll take on any New Yorker who claims the best “pie” in the land hails from the East coast, because you haven’t had pizza until you’ve had it in Chicago!

Sarah Sinitean

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Supervisor, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: University of Iowa
  • Hometown: Naperville, Ill.
  • Interests: Spending time with my dog, reading and learning to cook.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: I love showing off Chicago to my friends and family who have never been here before.  No matter what the season, our first stop is almost always Hashbrowns for brunch. Located on Maxwell Street near the UIC campus, their famous sweet potato hashbrowns entice people from all over the city. It’s the perfect place to start off the day!

Susie White

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Supervisor, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Hometown: St. Charles, Ill.
  • Interests: Social media, traveling, and current events.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Senatorial Privilege” – I love this scandal in politics and I am obsessed with the Kennedys. This book beautifully illustrates Teddy Kennedy’s fall from grace, as well as the work and team behind the “Camelot” image.

Emily Kellam

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: University of Dayton
  • Hometown: Chicago, Ill.
  • Interests: Running, biking, anything outdoors, live music, traveling, volunteering, trying new restaurants, movies and reading.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: If the weather allows, I love taking out-of-town visitors for a bike ride along the lakefront. Of course, we must rent the two-seater bike so I can embarrass my guests and we can laugh at ourselves the whole time we ride!

Jenna Simenic

  • MSL Chicago Title: Senior Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: Edinboro University (Edinboro, Pa.)
  • Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio
  • Interests: Baking and running.
  • Three Words that Describe Me: Inquisitive, friendly and spontaneous.

Jacqueline Jones

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Executive, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: Ohio University
  • Hometown: Quartz Hill, Calif.
  • Interests: I am interested in sci-fi novels, hot yoga, and traveling. I have been to more than 10 different countries, my favorite destination so far as been Porto, Portugal.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: I always take family and friends to Myopic Books in Wicker Park. It is a large three story used bookstore with an expansive collection and a resident cat that can be found lounging amongst the stacks. Luckily, my friends and family understand my inner-nerd.

Sean McCarthy

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: University of Iowa
  • Hometown: Floosmoor, Ill.
  • Interests: Great literature, jazz, hockey, cities and their histories, golf and Woody Allen films.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Don Quixote” – Our lives will always be both tragic and comic, and the line between the two, at times, can be slim. “Don Quixote” celebrates this truth more profoundly and riotously than any other novel, and that’s why I enjoy it.

Bethany Weis

  • MSL Chicago Title: Account Executive, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Hometown: Hartland, Wis.
  • Interests: I’m a self titled “adventure traveler”. While I’ve had the opportunity to visit many popular countries (France, Italy, Spain, England, Czech Republic), my more thrilling trips include a four-day hike of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, skydiving and parasailing in Switzerland, scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and most recently a fishing expedition to Canada where I caught a 49″ Northern. A native of Wisconsin I’m also a huge Green Bay Packers, Badgers and Brewers fan and anything involving cheese or beer (although preferably both)!
  • Favorite Book and Why: My favorite book is “The Survivors Club” by Ben Sherwood. Every second of the day, someone in the world faces a crisis; a car accident, illness, a violent crime, etc. This book reveals the hidden side of survival by combining astonishing true stories, gripping scientific research and the author’s adventures inside the U.S. military’s elite survival schools and the government’s airplane crash evacuation course. It answers the riveting question we all ask ourselves, “Do I have what it takes to survive?”

Lindsay Attwood

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Digital
  • Alma Mater: M.S., Full Sail University; B.S., Ferris State University
  • Hometown: Swartz Creek, Mich.
  • Interests: Classic rock, television, pop culture, Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions and Saturday Night Live.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Local DJ, A Rock & Roll History” by Peter C. Cavanaugh. It’s bout the 1960s rock music scene in Flint, my hometown. It makes me proud and is full of fun facts, like WTAC was the first American radio station to play The Who.

Katie Bogey

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: State University of New York at Fredonia

Stevie Hoey

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Consumer Marketing
  • Alma Mater: University of Tennessee
  • Hometown: Chicago, Ill.
  • Interests: Traveling, football, soccer and running.
  • Favorite Book and Why: “Unbroken” by Laura Hillebrand because it’s an amazing true story and one of the most heart-wrenching and motivational books I have ever read. Weeks after I read the book I would still think of Louis Zamperini.

Collin Hurrell

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: Miami University
  • Hometown: Olmsted Falls, Ohio
  • Interests: Two interests I have are weather and Cleveland sports teams.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: I always try to take out-of-town visitors to Piece Pizza in Bucktown. It encapsulates all good things about Chicago – good food, good microbrews and a cool neighborhood atmosphere.

Kristin Lane

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Corporate Branding
  • Alma Mater: Loyola University Chicago
  • Hometown: Muncie, Ind.
  • Interests: Creative writing, trips to the farmers market, baking (and occasionally cooking), hosting parties for friends and family and traveling both near and far.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: I am a huge fan of giving my guests “the local” experience when visiting — through festivals, neighborhood restaurants and events hosted by the city. Each summer, Millenium Park hosts “Downtown Sound,” a free concert series featuring up-and-coming artists. The lawn is typically filled with city dwellers enjoying the music, great weather, picnics and time with friends. The event has been a huge hit for my guests the past couple of years.

Jeffrey LeFevre

  • MSL Chicago Title: Coordinator, New Business Development, Midwest Region
  • Alma Mater: Loyola University Chicago
  • Hometown: St. Charles, Ill.
  • Interests: Digital Technology, Independent Films, Local Restaurants, International Travel
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: As a self-proclaimed foodie in an internationally-renowned city of cuisine, I like to expose visitors to local restaurants that infuse classic cuisine with new flavor combinations and the vibrant energy of the city (e.g. GT Fish and Oyster, Coco Pazzo, Gilt Bar, Girl and the Goat, Chicago Q).

Jake McClure

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Digital
  • Alma Mater: M.B.A., Roosevelt University; B.S., Ferris State University
  • Hometown: Linden, Mich.
  • Interests: I love to eat ethnic food, live in the city, travel, explore Chicago and enjoy all Detroit professional sports teams.
  • Favorite Book and Why: My favorite book is “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell because Gladwell explains how minor differences during everyday events can make significant changes in outcome of tomorrow’s future.

Ginny Woodcock

  • MSL Chicago Title: Assistant Account Executive, Digital
  • Alma Mater: Christopher Newport University (Newport News, Va.)
  • Hometown: Richmond, Va.
  • Interests: Cooking, crafting, horseback riding, water sports and cheering on the Dallas Cowboys.
  • My Must-See Chicago Attraction to Take Out-of-Town Visitors: If visiting in July, I would take my guests to Taste of Chicago. This festival provides the opportunity to sample delicious food and enjoy live music. At any other time during the year, my guests and I would venture out to Wrigleyville, a neighborhood that boasts great food, drinks, and of course Wrigley Field!