Sonia Checchia, Creative Director
Sonia is a communications and marketing consultant with expertise in strategic communications, change management, internal communications, brand management, messaging, and event planning. A strong writer with an eye for design, Sonia consults with clients to build communications strategies that ensure their most important messages are heard.
Sonia was previously at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she held several roles focused on communications and training and developed expertise in Human Resources, Learning & Development, and Diversity & Inclusion. Sonia holds a B.A. in International Studies from American University (Washington, DC) and an M.A. in Sociolinguistics: Language & Communication from Georgetown University (Washington, DC).
Sonia lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and serves on the Community Advisory Board for The Three Rivers Language Center at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne. She loves yoga (RYT-200 certified with Faith Hunter), National Public Radio, and any excuse to channel her inner Martha Stewart or Ina Garten.
Maria Ciazza, Senior Communications Consultant
Maria is an Emmy award winning television producer-turned-communications consultant. In her thirteen years as a newsmaker, she learned the importance and impact of clear, consistent messaging and adopted a no-nonsense work style and philosophy that “every word counts.”
She translates her nuanced understanding of the news cycle into strategies to help clients design and maximize smart, actionable, measurable, and creative communications and marketing plans.
A natural journalist, Maria is trained to spot a good story. As a consultant, Maria helps businesses and organizations succeed—i.e., engage stakeholders, deeply connect with their client base, and attract potential customers—by crafting a narrative that personifies the brand and captures its emotive connection to the organization/product.
Maria consults on employee communications, executive communications, change management/Human Resources processes, and event design and planning. Having spent years behind the camera, she excels at media coaching—to ensure you shine at your next interview or moment in the spotlight.
Maria earned her B.A. in English/Journalism at Mount Saint Mary’s University (Emmitsburg, Maryland). She lives in Frederick, Maryland, with her husband and young son. Maria believes everybody’s got a story. (So, what’s yours?)
Assem Nasr, Senior Communications Consultant
Assem has a broad and varied background in radio, television, advertising, and non-profit organization work, including over ten years of hands-on media production experience. He is currently Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne. His research and publications focus on Arab media issues, including transnational television industries, representation of history in media, advertising and consumption, and gender politics in the Arab world.
He draws from his experience on-the-ground in newsrooms, on-the-set in filmmaking, and scholarly research to consult with clients on media strategies, qualitative media analysis, and communication technologies in the Arab world. Assem earned his B.A. in Public Administration at American University of Beirut (Beirut, Lebanon), his M.F.A. in Film and Electronic Media at American University (Washington, DC), and his Ph.D. in International Communication from The University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas).
Assem lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is an avid photographer, and will drop almost anything to deejay a dance party at a moment’s notice.
