Anastacia V., Founder & Chief Chaos Coordiator at Merewif

Anastacia V.

Founder & Chief Chaos Coordiator at Merewif

Leadership

Education: BA English, Writing University of Washington - Master of Communication Digital Media, Master of Communication Network Analytics, University of Washington

Seattle, WA, USA

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Biography

That looks impossible, I want to try it. This mantra has fueled Ana Visneski’s career. A go-to expert and sought after speaker and trainer in all things crisis communications and crisis management, Ana loves to tackle challenges and overcome them. The arc of her career has been formed by making huge changes to organizations that are resistant, even allergic, to change — finding that middle ground to get to the solution without anyone feeling completely left behind.

Some of these organizations include the US Coast Guard, where she oversaw crisis communication responses for major disasters from Hurricane Katrina to the BP Oil Spill; to her time at Amazon Web Services as both Head and Principal of Global Disaster Response. Ana currently teaches Crisis Communications at her alma mater (she’s a triple Husky), the University of Washington in Seattle for the Communications Leadership Graduate School. She has a book launching in April 2024, F*ck it, Watch This.

Passion

I thrive on telling the stories of how to accomplish the impossible. How to build successful and resilient teams by applying lessons I learned in the Coast Guard. My career has been built on saving lives and helping people and I thrive on bringing that knowledge to audiences.

I am willing to travel

More than 100 miles

When it comes to payments

I always get paid for speaking

Topics

leadership authentic leadership crisis when crisis strikes crisis preparation and management natural disasters disaster comms crisis comms resilience organizational change management enterprise risk management taking risks cloud women in tech video games veterans author

Best Story

I have a number of stories about thinking outside the box during crisis situations- for example using the one last radio station working in New Orleans to get messages to people trapped in their attics, to

Origin Story

I started my career right out of undergrad by moving to Antarctica, after that I joined the U.S. Coast Guard where I was an officer who specialized in Search and Rescue and Disaster Response. My first response what Hurricane Katrina, and I was a first responder for every major disaster from 2005-2016. This includes the BP oil spill, the I35 Bridge collapse and more. My last deployment was on the CGC Healy to the Arctic. While in the service I founded the CG's social media program, was the first official blogger for any armed service, and launched their first mobile app. In the Coast Guard I found my passion for helping others through a crisis, and applying new technologies to disaster response.