Ana Visneski’s career started when she joined the Coast Guard, where she served for 12 years doing search and rescue, disaster response, and crisis communications.

Ana is the founder and Chief Chaos Coordinator for Merewif LLC, a boutique crisis management firm that specializes in the game and tech industries. She runs crisis management for everything from natural disasters to employee issues, product failures, and more.

Previously as the Head of Global Disaster Response and the Head of Launch, Blog, and Podcast operations for Amazon Web Services, she built their Critical Event Protocol, a comprehensive crisis response plan including internal and external communication operations. Then as Principal for Global Disaster Response I oversaw the technical operations for applying AWS technology to disasters including Hurricane Dorian and the COVID19 pandemic, developing a comprehensive crisis management plan. Prior to that role she was the Head of Launch, Blog, and Podcast operations for AWS.

Ana’s a published author, public speaker, and huge Kraken fan. She loves teaching Crisis Comms for the program and she’s a triple Husky, the first student to get both the MCDM and MCCN, and having gotten her BA in Writing here at the UW as well.