MOREY CREATIVE STUDIOS - Key Persons
Beverly Fortune has been with Morey Creative Studios for more than 20 years and serves as its COO and oversees the custom publishing division of the company.
Job Titles:
- Executive Editor
- Editor in Chief of Morey Creative
- Executive Editor in Chief
Christopher Twarowski is executive editor in chief of Morey Creative Studios, responsible for guiding and inspiring all team members in their collective pursuit of inbound marketing excellence and near-perfect grammar.
As such, he oversees all content development for Morey Creative's diverse and ever-growing roster of clients-from blogs, white papers and case studies to websites, email campaigns, collateral, podcasts and special projects-while helping mentor strategists, account managers and designers in the fundamentals and inherent joys of researching, interviewing and writing. This involuntarily includes sharing the infectious euphoria derived from a well-placed comma, the rare semicolon intervention, run-on sentence cannibalism, or mind-bending, double-barrel shotgun lede (among other underappreciated punctuative and structural triumphs).
Twarowski is also editor in chief of Morey Creative's multi-award-winning social justice podcast News Beat, which melds independent, hard-hitting journalism with original music to shine a light on underreported-yet-super-critical issues and spark meaningful change, and former editor in chief and chief of investigations of the alt-weekly Long Island Press.
He holds an M.S. in Journalism with a specialization in investigative journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was an inaugural member of the school's Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. He also holds an M.A. from the school with a concentration in business and economics. Twarowski has written for the financial and metro desks of The Washington Post and has earned more than 150 local, state and national journalism awards and accolades.
Job Titles:
- Inbound Content Developer
Daine Taylor joined Morey Creative as an Inbound Content Developer in January 2021, after working for 5 years as a journalist and travel editor. He graduated from Stony Brook University with a bachelor's degree in Journalism in 2015 and joined the Long Island Herald Newspaper in 2016, where he covered a variety of topics centered around the local community.
He joined Travel Market Report, an online travel industry publication, in 2019, where he learned to further hone his reporting and editing skills to cater to specific audiences. He's written stories ranging from destination offerings, and airline travel news, to industry profiles and actionable business strategies for travel advisors.
When not working, Daine can usually be found longboarding around Long Island and New York City looking to get into random adventures. He loves nature, traveling, photography, free stuff, TV, anime and all good music.
Pronouns: He/Him
Job Titles:
- Account Director
- Morey Creative As a Strategist
Dillon Friday joined Morey Creative as a strategist in July 2019 after four-plus years at Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer, a state association within the U.S. Soccer Federation. Dillon is working to become best friends with Jeff at the Philadelphia office, where the pair breaks up work with chats about local breweries, music and coffee.
Dillon, who grew up in Duluth, MN, studied creative writing and played soccer at Hamilton College (Clinton, NY), where he was a three-time academic all-conference performer. Dillon brings a strong writing and journalism background to Morey, having served as the editor for Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer's Touchline magazine and freelanced for several Philadelphia-area newspapers, most frequently with the Delaware County Daily Times. Dillon plays hockey and soccer regularly and has a love/hate relationship with the Philadelphia Flyers and Eagles. He enjoys reading about baseball and the American Civil War, listening to Jimmy Eat World and Damien Jurado, and boycotting establishments or products that have wronged him. Dillon lives in the Pennsport neighborhood of South Philly.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Grace Fulco is an Account Director at Morey Creative Studios. Her job entails providing innovative and disruptive marketing solutions for her clients as an advocate behind their purpose driven values.
On any given workday she's to be continued....
Job Titles:
- Developer
- Web Designer
- Senior Web Designer
Jake doesn't actually work here, he just keeps showing up every day. Jake is a web designer/developer at Morey Creative Studios. In 2016 he took the intern route to begin his Morey journey, and a couple short months later he started full time.
If he's not digging for the latest creative trends online, he's doing pretty much anything outside. Basketball, football, croquet, and midwestern spear fishing (maybe) are all rolling around in his wheelhouse. As part of the Morey varsity badminton team, his competitive nature has been known to leak out from time to time, but what can you expect from a New Yorker who roots for the Lakers and Broncos. Despite all this, we keep him around, for now.
Job Titles:
- Business Manager
- Controller
Jamie Castagna is business manager of Morey Creative Studios, a position he has held since 2011. Castagna started with the company in 2006 as the staff accountant, supporting the CFO and overseeing a wide range of duties, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll and retirement services for its many subsidiaries, such as radio stations WLIR, Party 105, and alternative newsweekly the Long Island Press. Prior to his accounting career, Castagna worked in finance as a broker for Prudential Securities.
In his role as business manager at morey Creative Studios, Castagna is responsible for all business and backend functions of the corporation, including budgeting, cash projections, the financial restructuring of corporate debt, and maintaining the relationships with our bank, professional employer organization, and vendors.
Jamie spends a good portion of his time trying to convince Jed Morey why we don't really need to spend any money on a new service/equipment/anything. He also has an irrational hatred for Billy Joel and no one can convince him otherwise.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Jamie Lynn Ryan is the Implementation Director at Morey Creative Studios. A lifelong admirer of the Long Island Press, she had the good fortune to meet Jed Morey through her work as a longtime member of the board of directors of the Press Club of Long Island. Nearly 15 years later, their paths fortuitously crossed once more, leading to her decision to join the MCS team.
Prior to transitioning to a career in the inbound marketing field, she served as editor and columnist of the community weekly, South Bay's Neighbor Newspapers, for which she penned nearly 700 columns. During her 13-year tenure there, she also helped to develop the award-winning specialty publication, Seasons Magazine.
Jamie graduated as the Valedictorian of the Lindenhurst High School Class of 2000, going on to earn a B.F.A. in journalism at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, where she was active in both the Honors and Peer Mentoring programs.
An avid landscape photographer in her free time, Jamie especially enjoys capturing scenes of Long Island's beautiful coastline, many of which can be viewed on her personal website, SnapshotsAndSilhouettes.com.
Jed Morey is the CEO and founder of Morey Creative Studios. Prior to founding Morey Creative Studios, Morey served as publisher of the Long Island Press for 15 years and is the author of the political book, The Great American Disconnect: Seven Fundamental Threats to Our Democracy. During his tenure at the Press, Morey wrote a political column, which was awarded Best Column by the New York Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Today he also serves as Executive Producer of the award-winning social justice podcast News Beat.
Morey graduated from Friends Academy where he is currently a trustee, received a B.S. in business from Skidmore College and an M.B.A. from Hofstra University, where he was the recipient of the Distinguished Young Alumni Award. He lives in Glen Cove, NY with his wife, Eden White, and their two daughters.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Jeff is a Design Director at Morey Creative Studios and the Phounder of the Philly office. (See what we did there?)
When he's not building websites or obsessing over font selections, he likes to work out, run the trails of Wissahickon Valley Park, and teach himself how to play guitar. Jeff's also an avid beer fan and enjoys sampling local craft selections as much as he does brewing his own beer at home.
Jeff graduated summa cum laude from LIU Post with a BFA in Digital Art & Design and minor in Art History. During his time there, he was an Honors student, Resident Assistant, writing tutor, and all-around nerd. He is originally - and quite proudly - from Queens, NY and currently lives in Philadelphia with his wife Meryl, daughter Elliott, and three rotund cats.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Job Titles:
- Senior Inbound Content Developer
Jeffrey Howard joined Morey Creative in April 2021 as a senior inbound content developer. In previous lives, he has been a social studies teacher, mental health professional, outdoors instructor, and communications director.
He has recently become a hobbyist candlemaker and begun studying architecture to design and eventually build his own Victorian-style home (complete with hidden passageways, overflowing shelves of leather-bound books, and the occasional occurrence of paranormal activity). He has visited 48 of the 50 states and lived in California, Utah, and Virginia-but Cascadia still occupies the bigger part of his heart. While generally an amiable soul, he's struggling to let go of mild grudges he holds against Nirvana (the band, not the state of being), René Descartes, and Netflix for canceling the Dark Crystal series.
Jeffrey also moonlights as the host of Damn the Absolute! (a philosophy podcast) and serves as the editor-in-chief of Erraticus, an online publication taking a pragmatic approach to ideas.
Pronouns: (he/him)
John Patti aka JP is a web designer at Morey Creative Studios. When JP isn't yelling at his desk, he is rocking and rolling with his Main Street hive.
Design has always been a passion for him. John graduated from FSC with a B.S. in Visual Communications and an A.A.S. in Art: Digital Technologies from NCC. He joined the company as an intern and was hired full-time in the summer of 2018.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Jon Chim is a design director at Morey Creative Studios. He's a creative at heart but when he's not pushing pixels you can find him pushing iron at the gym. His desire for super strength will allow him to skip leg day forever. You may find him devouring Shake Shack, Popeyes or Chipotle but he enjoys cooking just as much with his lovely wife.
He's watched at least 40 movies in 2019 with his favorite being Avengers Endgame. His favorite colors are black and yellow- which might be why his go-to team are the penguins-but maybe penguins are just his favorite animal? Or maybe because of Star Wars? Hmm..
Pronouns: (he/him)
Jon Sasala is president of Morey Creative Studios, a New York-based HubSpot Partner Agency specializing in inbound B2B marketing content development, web design, podcast production, lead generation and sales support. He joined the Morey team in 2001 as a graphic designer, and has grown with the organization throughout the last two decades to his current position.
As a Power HubSpot User, Jon is often listed among the most-engaged service providers in the HubSpot community, and highly certified across all facets of the HubSpot platform. He heads the HubSpot User Group for New York City and hosts the ‘Inbound & Down.' podcast, both with the intention of helping others make the most of their HubSpot utilization.
In addition to his agency responsibilities, Jon co-founded InclusionHub, an online database, resource nexus, and community designed to help businesses make better decisions around web accessibility and digital inclusion. Closely connected with the design, programming and content side of web development-coupled with a comprehensive understanding of business operations-he has a unique perspective on the importance of web accessibility for companies operating in the digital world.
Jon lives in Smithtown, NY with his wife Christen and daughters Margot and Colette.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Joe is a Content Strategist at Morey Creative Studios. We scooped him up after he decided it was time to graduate from freelancing for other agencies and enter the world of Inbound Marketing. He came in for his first interview wearing a shirt covered in a dragonfly pattern and we couldn't let him live it down, so we hired him and dubbed him "Dragonfly."
Now, Joe strategizes and develops content and keeps the MCS team on their toes with whatever game he's concocting at the time. The shockwaves of his hostile takeover of the Word of the Day are still reverberating through the office. When he's not doing that, Joe enjoys reading, spending time outdoors, and criticizing the plots of shows that have been off the air for years.
Joe graduated from Stony Brook University with a BA in Marketing and Cinema & Cultural Studies.
Pronouns: (he/him)
Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti is an award-winning new media journalist and digital strategist with 20 years' experience in news publishing and online journalism, much of which was spent at previous incarnations and subsidiaries of Morey Creative Studios.
Under his pseudonym, he also founded several independent media outlets, including an acclaimed online entertainment and lifestyle destination focusing on hip hop music and culture in the New York metropolitan area, and several successful podcast projects, including the groundbreaking ‘News Beat,' which was awarded journalism podcast of the year by the New York Press Association and best podcast by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Currently, he is helping lead the Morey Creative Studios podcast production division, assisting in the creation, production, editing, distribution, and promotion of multiple podcast programs, including the MCS podcast, Inbound & Down.
He is an accomplished DJ/producer/remixer and public speaker who has lectured, conducted workshops, and participated in panel discussions at conferences and festivals throughout the world, engaging audiences on topics that include journalism, podcasting, and hip-hop music and culture.
Michael and Manny are both married to the same wonderful woman, and they lovingly raise their children and pets together in Newark, New Jersey.
Job Titles:
- Professional EOS Implementer
Mitch was the founding publisher of TechWeb, the first technology website to sell advertising, and vice president and founder of the Internet division of CMP Media Inc., an international media company that was sold for close to $1 billion, in significant part because of the Internet assets he nurtured. At CMP for 17 years, Mitch was the editorial director of the company's Travel Group and founding editor, and later publisher, of Business Travel News. He later was the publisher of VARBusiness, one of CMP's leading technology magazines. He later served as senior vice president of Ziff Davis Media where he published InteractiveWeek, one of the pioneering newspapers covering e-commerce.
In 2001, Mitch launched his coaching practice. Since then, he has worked with hundreds of individual and corporate clients. He is a certified graduate of Coach U, the world's largest coach training institution, and a member of the International Coach Federation, from which he received his Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential. He received an M.B.A. from Columbia University and a B.A. with honors in English from Northwestern University.
Phil Stott joined the Morey team in October 2019.
Originally from Scotland-no, he's never losing the accent-Phil spent a couple of years after college teaching English language in Eastern Europe and Asia, before landing in New York in 2006.
For the next dozen years, Phil gained experience as a writer, editor, web producer and marketing content strategist. Along the way, he picked up a Masters in Marketing Management from Boston University. He also adopted the Mets, continuing a proud tradition-carried over from a lifetime of soccer fandom-of rooting for teams that never win anything.
Phil lives in Glen Cove, Long Island, with the three loves of his life: his wife, Meghan, and his two daughters, Maeve and Isla.
Job Titles:
- Managing Editor
- Managing Editor of News Beat
Rashed Mian is managing editor of News Beat, an award-winning social justice podcast that investigates the United States' broken criminal justice system, civil liberties and other political and societal injustices devastating disenfranchised Americans. Mian has won more than two dozen journalism awards during his decade-long career in alternative media. During that time he has covered marginalized communities, threats to civil liberties, perpetual war, erosion of press freedoms by successive presidential administrations, and attacks on some of the most vulnerable members of society.
Job Titles:
- Senior Inbound Content Developer
Rebecca recently joined the Morey Creative Studios as a Senior Inbound Content Developer, capping seven years in the space (in both freelance and corporate settings) developing effective content for brands in financial services, healthcare, tech, and travel, among others.
She started her career (ages ago) doing 100-hour weeks as an investment banker for Merrill Lynch before doing a few years on the buy side and getting an MBA and CFA somewhere along the way. After giving up the finance thing and enjoying a 10-year adventure in the UK with her family, Rebecca transitioned to content development.
When she's not crafting customized content (or alliterating, just because she can), Rebecca enjoys running, skiing, and live music. If you ask her, she'll talk way too long about seeing Led Zeppelin live in London in 2007.
Job Titles:
- Senior Inbound Content Developer
Interestingly, Regina's journey toward Morey Creative Studios, began in the late 80s, around the same time the company's roots were first planted. It was during that time, she and her cousin, Kate, would spend hours listening to WLIR/92.7 on a "boom box" radio at Kate's house in Babylon. Little did she know, she'd be part of the Morey family more than 30 years later as a Senior Strategist.
Regina began her professional career on a traditional journalism path first as Editorial Assistant for a NYC-based trade magazine. From there, she moved on to serve as Editor in Chief of various magazines within the maritime and IT industries. Despite having spent a fair amount of time within these specific industries, she still can't captain a cruise ship, and don't ask her to fix your laptop either!
Regina moved back to Long Island in 2017 (from New Jersey) with her husband, Mike, and their two boys, Henry (age 9), and Charlie (age 6). She enjoys spending time exploring all the area has to offer (especially the East End), while trying to convince Mike that Long Island is far more interesting and exciting than his beloved Jersey!
Pronouns: (she/her)
Job Titles:
- Director of Social Impact
Sage Levene is a person who works at Morey Creative Studios. She's not really sure how to describe her job at the moment, but she loves it.
On any given work day you can find her talking about podcasts (especially Grow For Good™,) and bothering Jon Chim.
In her personal life, Sage is a big music lover and attends many concerts-mostly moe.-but also loves the stylings of The Grateful Dead, Phish, Arcade Fire, Taylor Swift... You get it.
Additionally, she's a self-proclaimed craft beer superfan and upon meeting her she'll likely give you a beer recommendation and bully you to join Untappd.
Pronouns: (she/her)
Job Titles:
- Managing Inbound Content Developer
- Strategist
Steve is a strategist at Morey Creative Studios. He joined team Morey in January 2019 after spending 10 years in the world of community journalism, working for various publications in Queens and Long Island as a reporter, editor, and at his last newspaper, editor-in-chief. But of the many types of stories he's written-from crime and school budgets to little leagues and elections-Steve is perhaps best known for his savory exploits as a food writer, using those skills to freelance for a variety of publications, including Newsday.
This continues with his work as The Cultured Pig, Steve's food-obsessed alter ego that solidifies his place on Long Island as a tastemaker and king of all eaters. In his free time, Steve whines about the Mets, agonizes over the Islanders, and successfully hides his secret life as an avid Dungeons & Dragons player (oops). And while he's never seen or read anything having to do with Harry Potter, he's perfectly comfortable nerding out about Star Wars, IPAs, flannels, and 90s alternative rock.
Steve graduated from CUNY Queens College (after spending just a shade under a decade at LIU Post) with a bachelor's degree in media studies and a minor in journalism. He also somehow convinced Queens College to allow him to teach journalism to actual college students for three whole semesters. In spite of this, his desired nickname of "Professor Mosco" never really took off.
Steve is currently living the good life in Franklin Square with his wife Jules and their dog, Honey.
Job Titles:
- Inbound Content Developer
Sydney joined the Morey team in January 2022.
Aside from loving the culture, community, and line of work right off the back, she was hooked when she saw that a dog, Tandia, would also be a member of the team. You could say that she paw-sitively wanted in on that.
A Buffalo, NY native, Sydney's professional career has roots in journalism and teaching. As a Digital Media instructor with Villa Maria College, she has experience creating and teaching classes like digital storytelling, journalism, public relations, english, and digital marketing strategy. Over the last several years, she has also written for a variety of journalistic publications including Buffalo News Gusto, The Sun, Karibu News, and The Griffin.
When she's not writing, learning about ecopsychology, or building websites, Sydney loves hiking, art, coffee (as a pasttime), reading, traveling, and just generally, exploring the planet.
Pronouns: (she/her)