Empowering federal agencies with innovative, evidence-based solutions for enhanced public service delivery
We help federal civilian agencies to achieve their critical missions and objectives with efficiency and precision. Leveraging a deep bench of industry experts and a rich history of proven experience, we deliver tailored solutions that not only meet but exceed the unique needs of each agency. Our commitment to excellence and innovation ensures that every federal partner is equipped with the cutting-edge tools and strategic insights necessary for success in serving the nation’s interests.
Aptive helps the Department of Veterans Affairs transform information technology (IT) practices.
READ ARTICLEThe Office of the Under Secretary of Defense employs new strategies to communicate fiscal leadership.
READ ARTICLEReimagining research and development reports and supporting content to broaden audience engagement.
READ ARTICLEA multi-modal approach attracts top-quality applicants.
READ ARTICLEThe Department of Transportation embraces a new brand campaign to boost engagement efforts.
READ ARTICLEThe new Supervisor Ready program prepared 600 participants for leadership roles in the first 18 months of the program.
READ ARTICLEStrengthening mentoring, promoting and hiring processes to develop and secure optimal talent.
READ ARTICLEEffective training for new personnel and leadership provides faster knowledge integration.
READ ARTICLEMail automation services rapidly reduce wait times for Veterans accessing services.
READ ARTICLEMax Entman is a proven communications and marketing leader with a track record of launching strategic, results-driven campaigns and public awareness programs. He guides project teams as they deliver strategic and innovative solutions to Aptive’s clients. He also leads business development activities, helping Aptive expand its strategic communications and recruitment marketing footprint across the federal government.
He has over 13 years of experience in the communications and marketing field with a focus on delivering digital and creative solutions to accelerate innovation and transform target audience behavior. In addition to experience with numerous federal agencies, Max brings the perspective of leading work with large corporations and leading non-profit organizations to the development of solutions for Aptive’s public sector clients. From enterprise website transformations to targeted digital campaigns with multimillion-dollar budgets, he leads teams to drive business value for Aptive’s clients.
Emily Howell is a research-driven communications strategist and business development specialist with a decade of experience leading multimillion dollar campaigns for federal clients. Emily uses her background in service delivery for agencies such as the Departments of Transportation and Veterans Affairs, National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to identify client pain points and develop high-quality, innovative solutions. She has overseen the capture, bid and execution of hundreds of millions of dollars of communications and marketing projects throughout the federal government. She excels at building relationships with partners and clients and developing teams that drive results.
Marisa Cole is a strategic powerhouse leading a team of creative thinkers and communicators in strategic engagement initiatives. She oversees project delivery, drives service offering maturation and conducts business development activities for a growing portfolio of contracts across the federal government, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD). She is a skilled writer and facilitator with 20 years of experience mobilizing change in federal and health care environments. Marisa’s areas of expertise include managing strategic communications efforts and directing change management for large scale enterprise-wide transformation initiatives.
Throughout her career, Marisa has supported a wide variety of government clients, including DOD, VA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), United States Postal Service (USPS) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). She is highly skilled in cultivating trusting relationships with clients and colleagues and has a passion for clear communication and transformative change. Marisa’s prior roles focused on advising and coaching executive and mid-level leaders on communications and change management skills and techniques; creating innovative approaches to reach diverse, geographically-dispersed populations; and providing trusted guidance on communication, branding and marketing of organizational initiatives, policies and services. She has spent a significant portion of her career implementing and guiding change management strategy to transform large, integrated health care systems into high reliability organizations.
Taylor Grant is a creative leader and experienced designer who applies human-centered design to produce innovative and impactful visual communication materials. Through strategic oversight, she ensures the creative team develops engaging brands and campaigns that achieve client goals while informing, inspiring and encouraging action. She creates thoughtful brand identities, paid media, social, events, out-of-home advertising, websites and outside-the-box creative executions that connect with target audiences and leave a lasting impression.
Taylor has more than 12 years of experience in visual communications and her eye for design and prior work with federal agencies provides Taylor with the ability to lead, support and serve Aptive’s creative team.
Kaveh is a creative visual storyteller with extensive video production experience, both in studios and on location. His role is to direct, manage and oversee video production and visual storytelling strategy at Aptive and to help enhance and elevate visual direction for creative campaigns nationwide. Over the past 15 years, Kaveh has been a part of teams and organizations that tell effective stories, conceptualizing creative ideas while thinking outside the box to showcase the most innovative stories, brands and campaigns. At Voice of America, he co-created the ‘People in America’ series, which became one of the most popular and widely watched visual series for TV and online platforms. At USA TODAY, Kaveh helped build and create the foundation for digital video franchise storytelling. At Moko Social Media, he helped build the video department from the ground up and created visual franchise series for all of its verticals.
Kaveh’s core passion is to create a safe, collaborative space for storytellers and creatives that helps foster vision, inspiration and creativity. “As creatives, we do our best work when we come together and that’s exactly what we’re building at Aptive and what sets us apart.”
Seth Niman leads Aptive’s media team, delivering marketing solutions and strategies to our federal and commercial clients. Seth and his team have extensive expertise in planning, negotiating and optimizing advertising campaigns designed to achieve their customers’ goals with specific, measurable results.
Seth applies a holistic approach to planning and buying across the media landscape, including digital programmatic, paid search, paid social, digital video/audio, connected television, out of home, print, television and radio. He utilizes a research-oriented process to develop the ideal media and advertising strategy, selecting the channels that align with the client’s overarching strategy and advancing their marketing objectives.
With more than 20 years of experience as an advertising, media and marketing professional, Seth has supported the branding, recruitment and product marketing efforts for Fannie Mae, McDonald’s, Cava, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Dr. Tara Fannon is a human-centered design researcher and educator with 13 years of experience developing and leading high-impact projects in the U.S. and abroad. Her work in education, non-profit, government and corporate sectors has led to actionable changes in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion; disability accessibility; mental health care access; workplace equity; and environmental sustainability. Throughout her career, Dr. Fannon has published widely and earned grants, fellowships and awards for her research and writing capabilities, including Excellence in Leadership as a market research team leader. Her love of teaching and learning is complemented by a love for mentorship and seeing team members flourish. At Aptive, Dr. Fannon leverages these passions along with intellectual curiosity and creativity, and an ability to build relationships to lead and support the research team and serve clients. Her skills, passions and exposure to different markets enable her to work collaboratively across diverse needs and interests to deliver teams and clients compelling data-driven insights and recommendations.
Kim Kinser is a communications and public relations expert with over 18 years of experience advising executives, leading teams and executing strategic communication plans. She has worked across various sectors, including government, healthcare, non-profit and higher education, providing guidance on communications, social media and public relations matters. Kim has a proven track record of leading cross-functional teams, executing global communication strategies and facilitating partnerships.
During her career, Kim has created communications and PR plans for 9.5 million beneficiaries, led teams in reporting and measuring communications effectiveness and ensuring successful client delivery, contractual compliance and contract growth. She manages a direct portfolio of projects across the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation and Energy and supports contract growth within the Human Experience account by performing business development and capture activities in alignment with the account’s portfolio.
Kim’s work has appeared on the White House blog and featured as a best practice in Charlene Li’s book “Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead.”. She has held previous roles with Deloitte, Humana, CALIBRE Systems and the American Cancer Society.
Taylor Wood is an experienced communication and change management strategist dedicated to building and leading proactive teams that go above and beyond for her clients. She oversees a portfolio of communication and marketing teams across several government agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Office of Personnel Management. In this role, Taylor focuses on growing and expanding Human Experience’s event management capability and enhancing Aptive’s recruitment marketing services through implementation of technical solutions.
Throughout her career, she has focused on learning various leadership styles and techniques to help others achieve success. Taylor is passionate about training others to lead with empathy and foster positive working relationships, enabling teams to provide exceptional service to clients. In previous roles, Taylor has led numerous communication teams and enterprise-wide transformation initiatives for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of the Navy, VA, United States Patent and Trademark Office, Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Energy.
