Our Team
MEET OUR TEAM

Our powerhouse marketing and events team includes strategic project managers, writers, designers, and skilled craftspeople who create inspiring, cost-effective solutions and experiences that help you succeed.

Valerie Novak Co-Owner
× Valerie Novak
Co-Owner

As our government contracts expert, Valerie spearheads federal and state government business development, expertly navigating the procurement process and securing new contracts by proposing forward-thinking, cost-effective solutions. Then, she leads projects from concept to completion, offering insightful recommendations that advance clients’ missions and building strategic (often decades-long) partnerships. When she’s not bringing in business, you’ll find Valerie spending time with her family and spoiling her sons, grandson, and fur babies.

Steve Novak Co-Owner
× Steve Novak
Co-Owner

Steve leads the Novak Birch team, instilling his creative vision across all projects. He’s an extraordinary conceptual thinker and illustrator and inspires us with his enthusiasm for fresh, creative design and his commitment to client service. Passionate about the 3D realm, Steve wows clients with unique interactive displays and exhibits. When he’s not planning our next exhibit or answering his ever-ringing phone, Steve enjoys spending time with his grandson and restoring classic cars with his sons.

Dawn Clark Office Administrator
× Dawn Clark
Office Administrator

Dawn is the heart of the Novak Birch family—the dedicated administrator who keeps the company running like a well-oiled machine. (And she’s got the stories to prove it!) A true jack-of-all-trades, Dawn contributes to every aspect of agency operations, from production and communications to human resources, billing, and herding cats (fittingly, since her childhood dream was to become a veterinarian).

Rachel Dornon Project Manager
× Rachel Dornon
Project Manager

Rachel’s ability to organize and multi-task while remaining detail-oriented only touches the surface of the value she brings to our team. Always on the go, she provides critical project management and account support for a wide range of projects, including marketing campaigns, retail installations, and interior and exterior signage for our government clients. She also manages scheduling and ordering and ensures that our clients’ projects remain on track and are delivered on time.

Adam Miller Fabrication Supervisor
× Adam Miller
Fabrication Supervisor

Adam leads our team of craftspeople and shop techs, managing the construction of high-impact exhibits, displays, signage, and more. As the liaison between our creative services and exhibits teams, Adam helps dream up unique solutions and then brings those visions to life, creating everything from wayfinding for 110,000-square-foot federal buildings to show-stopping two-story exhibit booths. He also supervises the on-site set-up of trade show booths and environmental installations and handles all estimating, consulting, and billing. When he’s not immersed in creating our next award-winning exhibit, you’ll find Adam spending time with his family and working on his car collection.

Rachel Claire Agency Services Director
× Rachel Claire
Agency Services Director

Rachel leads our creative and account services team and manages the agency’s workflow. From brand identities to trade show exhibits and events, marcomms materials, and digital campaigns, Rachel expertly keeps all our accounts humming while thoughtfully fostering new and long-term client relationships. With an eye for detail and strategic planning skills, Rachel takes a holistic approach to projects and collaboratively delivers thoughtful, cohesive solutions and experiences that achieve our clients’ goals. When she’s not managing the “organized chaos” that can be a marketing agency, you’ll find Rachel out and about in Charm City.

Tiffany Vandevoordt Content Strategy Director
× Tiffany Vandevoordt
Content Strategy Director

Tiffany is our content guru, leading the development of all content strategy, copywriting, and brand messaging for the agency. From digital and interactive to social and print, she’s passionate about crafting content that inspires target audiences, motivates action, and achieves a client’s goals—all while aligning with and strengthening their brand. With 20+ years of experience, Tiffany has conceptualized and written award-winning solutions for clients across diverse industries. When she’s not pitching the next big tagline, Tiffany enjoys traveling and cooking.

Beth Varden Art Director
× Beth Varden
Art Director

Beth has what we call a serious case of “the arts.” And that’s great news for us! From print and digital design to illustration, literature, and fine art, Beth’s multi-faceted design prowess results in thoughtful, innovative solutions. With her pup, Bowie, by her side, Beth provides art direction to our design team and also creates impressive brand identities, social media campaigns, suites of collateral, and other marketing creative. In addition to art director and designer, Beth is a self-described music nerd who also dabbles in writing, giving her a well-rounded and fresh take on every project she tackles.

Maureen Alsmeyer Senior Event Manager
× Maureen Alsmeyer
Senior Event Manager

It takes a special set of skills to wrangle all the requirements of national and international trade shows. Lucky for us, Maureen’s got it mastered—and she does it all with a smile! As the primary contact for clients, vendors, show organizers, and decorators, she handles the administration and logistics of all our client events, including scheduling, planning, invoicing, and shipping. When she’s not keeping our events humming, Maureen enjoys spending time with her family and going to the beach.

Allie Pauson Senior Account Manager
× Allie Pauson
Senior Account Manager

Allie has a dynamic background in account management, event logistics, and design—coupled with a natural ability to nurture client relationships. Fueled by her daily iced coffee, we count on Allie to manage projects and campaigns from beginning to end, leading the creation of digital, print, trade show/exhibit, web, and video projects for clients. As the key liaison between the client’s team and our team, she ensures that all deliverables are on brand, on time, and on budget. When Allie’s not busy keeping our accounts running smoothly, this Philly native enjoys going “down the shore” and eating “wooder ice.”

Sylwia Lambert Senior Designer
× Sylwia Lambert
Senior Designer

Growing up, Sylwia dominated in art class—so it didn’t take long for her to realize her calling. At Novak Birch, she designs imaginative marketing solutions ranging from brand identities to collateral and environmental. When Sylwia’s not tackling design projects, she’s intimidating gym goers with her bench press or dreaming of a cross-country road trip, complete with campy roadside attractions and glorious, artery-clogging delicacies.

Raul Hernandez Senior Fabricator
× Raul Hernandez
Senior Fabricator

Raul fabricates a wide range of components for our clients’ events, trade show exhibits, displays, pop-up activations, office spaces, and other environments. With 20 years of experience, we rely on Raul’s fabrication expertise and attention to detail to create branded spaces that engage visitors and make our clients happy.

Carlos Walker Experiential Designer
× Carlos Walker
Experiential Designer

A seasoned designer with 20 years of experience, Carlos brings versatile expertise to our team, working with both our design team and our shop to plan, design, and produce branded environments and experiences that draw in visitors. From dimensional signage and environmental graphics to branding and collateral, Carlos is adept at delivering high-impact solutions that get results for our clients.

Lisa Licata Graphic/3D Designer
× Lisa Licata
Graphic/3D Designer

With an impressive skillset ranging from graphic design to 3D/CAD design and even fabrication and build, Lisa is the perfect fit at Novak Birch. Working closely with our creative team and our in-house fabrication team, Lisa uses her expertise to create concepts and designs for high-impact user journeys and branded, interactive environments. From trade show booths to branded environments, Lisa’s eye for design delivers spaces and places that keep our clients happy. When she’s not at NB, Lisa enjoys traveling, woodworking, hiking, running, and reading.

Jamar Singletary Event Manager
× Jamar Singletary
Event Manager

Jamar uses his events experience to help lead the planning and execution of events for our federal clients—including everything from strategy and logistics to creative needs. He collaborates with our internal team as well as external partners and vendors to deliver successful virtual, hybrid, and in-person conferences and meetings. We rely on Jamar (and his trusty pup, Bondz) to deliver the seamless event experiences that our clients have come to expect. When he’s not planning events, Jamar is likely painting or cooking something from Food Network.

Jared Cohen Senior Graphic/Multimedia Designer
× Jared Cohen
Senior Graphic/Multimedia Designer

Jared is our go-to multimedia designer, whipping up everything from corporate communications and emails to animated videos that help our clients tell their stories. He uses his skills in Adobe’s Creative Suite to produce digital, social, and print graphics as well as animated and motion graphic videos that engage audiences and elicit response. When he isn’t designing, you’ll find this New York native cheering on the Jets or out and about in Canton.  

Taylor Benns Account Manager
× Taylor Benns
Account Manager

With a strong background in marketing and PR, Taylor offers a well-rounded approach to account management, working with clients to understand their needs and collaborating with our team to develop and implement strategic solutions that meet the client’s goals. She expertly leads a wide range of campaigns and projects from beginning to end, managing the internal creative and production process and delivering solutions that are on time, on brand, and within budget. Fun fact? Taylor has been to Disney World seven times!

Sandra Uche Project Coordinator
× Sandra Uche
Project Coordinator

Sandra is an integral part of our events team, expertly coordinating the planning and creation of transcripts, meeting summaries and minutes, and other documentation required for our federal client meetings and conferences (virtual, hybrid, and in person). She also manages print and promotional vendors for our federal accounts, ensuring that projects are completed on time and within budget. Outside of work, Sandra is a creative polymath who enjoys making bold, colorful jewelry as well as drawing and painting with various media.

Barbara Didwall Project Coordinator
× Barbara Didwall
Project Coordinator

Barb supports Novak Birch’s client accounts with a focus on our federal client events. Her impressive ability to multi-task and organize our clients’ ever-evolving needs is indispensable to our events team. She manages complex presentations for virtual and hybrid meetings and contributes to our quality control process.

Alexis Seaver Designer
× Alexis Seaver
Designer

Alexis’ skills in both design and illustration make her a versatile member of our team, expertly crafting and delivering creative for clients across wide-ranging industries. From collateral and graphics to logos, Alexis’ focus and design know-how result in marketing materials that receive plenty of client praise.

Stephen Novak Designer & Fabricator
× Stephen Novak
Designer & Fabricator

Stephen uses his graphic and digital design skills to create an array of creative materials ranging from flat graphics to dimensional pieces. With a focus on design for environmental installations and displays, he excels at working with our shop team to ensure that his designs are fabricated and built to achieve our clients’ goals. Stephen’s skills in painting, illustration, and 3D design make him a valuable asset across the agency’s wide range of creative projects. When he’s not designing, Stephen is an avid consumer of all things history and DIY.

Mike Tutchton Fabricator
× Mike Tutchton
Fabricator

Mike is a craftsman and jack-of-all-trades who supports client fabrication projects, offering a wide-ranging skillset that helps us deliver custom solutions to our clients.

James Hodgeman CNC Operator
× James Hodgeman
CNC Operator

James is a key member of our shop team, leading all of the work we do with our in-house CNC router. From oversized dimensional letters for exhibit booths to custom cabinetry and millwork, James works wonders with our router, delivering high-impact components for clients’ national trade shows, events, and conferences.

Dan Novak Fabricator/Installer
× Dan Novak
Fabricator/Installer

Dan assists with inventory, pack in/pack out, and maintaining client properties, and he continues to grow his skillset as a fabricator. He started driving a forklift when others were still riding big wheels, and now he is instrumental in onsite client installations/setups and shipments.

Mark Wilson Fabricator/Cabinet Maker
× Mark Wilson
Fabricator/Cabinet Maker

Mark is a detail-oriented craftsman who creates custom solutions and spaces that help our clients achieve their goals. He’s proficient in a variety of tools and materials and brings many years of experience to each client project.

Dale Hunt Fabricator
× Dale Hunt
Fabricator

Dale fabricates a wide variety of components for our clients’ events as well as their spaces, such as office environments and retail activations.

Drew Lindsay Warehouse Lead/Installer
× Drew Lindsay
Warehouse Lead/Installer

Drew keeps our warehouse organized, managing client inventory, packing for outgoing shipments, checking incoming shipments, and assisting with fabrication and setups.

Daniel Douglas Warehouse Associate
× Daniel Douglas
Warehouse Associate

Daniel keeps our warehouse organized, managing client inventory, maintaining properties, packing for outgoing shipments, checking incoming shipments, and assisting with fabrication and setups.

Josh Tutchton Warehouse Associate
× Josh Tutchton
Warehouse Associate

Josh assists with managing and maintaining client inventory properties, packing for outgoing shipments, and checking incoming shipments while he advances his skillset as a fabricator.

Beau Birch Founder
× Beau Birch
Founder

With a big personality and an even bigger heart, Beau epitomized a great leader. In 1987, he founded Novak Birch, growing it from a small design shop to the successful marketing, events, and exhibits agency it is today. He leaves behind a lasting legacy of creativity, collaboration, and innovation. Here’s to you, Beau.

Novak Birch

Important Notice

Microsoft has officially depreciated Internet Explorer versions 9 and lower.

In order to keep our website lean and free of code that merely hacks unsupported versions of Internet Explorer, we are no longer supporting IE 9 and lower. We believe in pushing web technology forward and so should you!

Download a better browser ›