Meet the Team

Maureen Ballatori is the founder and CEO of 29 Design Studio, an award-winning creative agency for food, beverage and agriculture brands. Her experience in brand strategy helps companies scale business growth, define their unique marketing message, and attract their ideal audiences.

Maureen’s rural roots are the source of both her passion for agriculture marketing and food. She is an active member in the startup community, participating in a number of entrepreneurship incubators and accelerators and playing a key role in Upstate NY economic development. 

Maureen was nominated for an ATHENA award in 2019. She is a graduate of Nazareth College of Rochester with a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration and has won multiple international awards for branding and design.

View Our Founder’s Story

Colleen is the orchestrator of client projects and behind the scenes operations that keep our team working like a well-oiled machine.Like our Founder, Colleen also grew up on a dairy farm in Central New York and, prior to joining our team, spent 11-years in the financial industry managing a $200+ million-dollar portfolio.

Colleen’s operational experience and insight from the financial services industry supports the agency’s growth and efficiency while maintaining the highest level of standard for our clients.

Colleen attended Cayuga Community College for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Courtney is the lead creative on our team. She specializes in building brand experiences and carrying the brand elements through all parts of a client’s business.

Courtney has worked on international brands including Pampers, Olay and Starbucks. She has experience using learnings from shopper research to design experiences that help drive brand and category sales in a variety of retail environments.

She graduated from RIT with a major in Graphic Design and minor in Advertising and Public Relations.

Kathy brings her love for the strategic and creative use of words to 29 Design Studio’s clients. She has helped create content for companies with food and agriculture brands such as DuPont, Merial, Pfizer and Perry’s. Owner of one of the 100 top pizza restaurants in the United States, she intimately understands the farm to table channel and its many stakeholders – especially farmers and consumers.

She did her doctoral work in technical communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and also holds a Masters in Public Administration and Bachelors in Journalism. With six kids and 10 grandkids, Kathy has a passion for romance novels, live music of all kinds and a well-earned reputation for killing house plants just by looking at them.

Whether it’s on the soccer field or at the conference table, Michela Hanlon is a real teamplayer. She considers herself a people person and loves being able to connect folks with the resources they need. Michela earned her Masters in Marketing Communications Leadership from Nazareth College after completing her Bachelors in Marketing. Growing up on an apple farm and participating in her County 4-H Fair for many years, Michela has strong ties in the agriculture world.

Jennifer is our marketing strategist and we often find her knee-deep in research with her nose in a book. She’s always ready to put her nerd hat on for any data-driven analysis, excited to dig deep into any brand’s challenges.

As our Jenn-of-all-trades, she has experience in many industries from agriculture to tourism to health and safety. We look to her for insight on all things marketing, from content ideation to development to promotion to evaluation and all the spaces in between, to amplify our clients and their work.

Jennifer graduated from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Radio and Athabasca University in Business Professional Arts: Communications Studies. She is also a Certified Associate in Project Management by the Project Management Institute.

Multi-talented creative Olivia Wendt has a unique background, having worked in Liberia, West Africa for 4 years. Her professional experience is multifaceted, having worked for in-house marketing departments, and multiple agencies. Olivia excels in taking a vision from ideation to execution through thoughtful design and art direction and she has worked with major brands including The Strong National Museum of Play, Health Systems for a Tobacco-Free NY, and Wegmans. When she isn’t working, Olivia enjoys hiking, roller skating, and going to concerts.

Franca is a graduate of Nazareth College with a B.F.A in Visual Communication Design and a minor in Business Management. Rochester is where she calls home and plans on being rooted in the Rochester community to continue her growth as a Graphic Designer. Franca has strong interests in branding, typography and photography. You can find Franca spending her free time with her family and friends, line dancing, or at Aerial Arts of Rochester. Franca is excited to continue her journey of creating an impact through design in her community.