Meet Our Team
Jen Smith graduated from Texas State University in 2007 with a BA degree in advertising and a minor in media studies. In her program’s capstone class, Jen and her group competed for a local chiropractor’s practice to utilize their ad campaign. Jen’s media plan was selected “best” in the class. Jen was in yet another group whose campaign was chosen to promote musician Bob Schneider’s new CD and concert tour.
Jen worked full-time during college, including an internship at 96.7 KISS FM radio station and a position as the Marketing Director for a popular downtown restaurant. A true “advertising nerd,” Jen really enjoys demographic analysis and media planning. She’s excited to be working at Practice Cafe, and part of her job is to work up demographic reports and dentist:population ratios for new clients. Jen has always derived great satisfaction from working, learning new things, and applying her knowledge and skills.
In her personal life, Jen enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her boyfriend. She also loves taking her dog, Ozzy, to the doggy park. Her other interests include movies, playing on the lake, and she’s learning how to cook. Jen currently volunteers with the Animal Trustees of Austin, and she hopes to open her own animal rescue shelter/adoption center when she’s retired.
Angie Liddiard completed her undergraduate studies in advertising and marketing, and English, at Brigham Young University in the spring of 2006. At BYU, Angie worked on various research and account planning projects for clients through her classes and with her department’s advanced ad lab. She also interned with Practice Cafe during her senior year, doing mostly copywriting.
Angie continues to write copy, and she works closely with clients as well. She acts as a liaison between Practice Cafe’s design team and dentists during the creation and editing of marketing projects. Angie strives to learn as much as she can from her experiences with PC’s team, clients, and vendor partners, and she loves to get emails and phone calls from dentists about how well their marketing is doing.
Previous to her last year of college, Angie took a year and a half to serve a full-time mission for her church in the northeast part of Brazil. She learned countless life lessons, Portuguese, and gained a great love for the people of Brazil. In her free time, Angie’s challenge is picking which of her many interests to pursue. She especially enjoys spending time with her family and friends, traveling, music and going to concerts, reading, cinema and theater, tennis, and waterskiing. She appreciates an occasional thrill, too, like cliff jumping, roller coasters, and skydiving. Her most recent hobby is spoiling her baby nephew, Carson.
Amanda Fuller began her college career at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and then graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she’s from. She studied English and spent plenty of time writing papers and sometimes, as the perfectionist she is, rewriting them. Her fresh copywriting skills, witty sense of humor, and caring personality are a much-appreciated asset to Practice Cafe’s copywriting department and team in general. After you’ve worked with her, we’re sure you’ll agree.
In her free time, Amanda prefers spending time with family and friends. She is also an avid reader, a movie buff, and she enjoys traveling, especially after spending one of her college semesters abroad in London. Amanda’s favorite food is Italian, her favorite cat, Jake, only has three feet, and her favorite new acquisition is a GPS system for her car so she doesn’t get lost anymore!
Joel Phillips graduated in graphic design from Texas State University. Since 1991, he has worked for various companies, from small graphic design firms to Fortune 500 companies. As Creative Director at Practice Cafe, Joel enjoys applying his wide range of design experience, which includes brand image development, print design, packaging, and even wayfinding and signage systems.
Joel has received many design awards from professional organizations in his field, including the New York Type Directors Club, Graphis (an international journal of visual communication), HOW and PRINT magazines, the Austin Ad Federation, and Austin’s chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). His work has also been published in the book, Creating Great Design on a Limited Budget, by Lee Chartier and Scott Mason.
Walking and playing with his wonder dog, Squeegee, is at the top of Joel’s list of favorite things to do. He also loves gardening and home improvement projects, going to the local Home Depot often enough that they know his first name. His other interests include painting, collecting retro paraphernalia (especially vintage signs), movies, and traveling.
Shane Guymon was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He studied graphic design at San Antonio College, graduating with an AA in 2005. While in school, Shane won two silver ADDYs in the local San Antonio Advertising Federation’s competition. He went on to compete in the regional ADDYs, winning two more silver awards. Shane also received a Certificate of Excellence at the Creative Summit Twenty-One Portfolio Competition, and honorable mention in the Texas2Show.
People sometimes ask Shane why he does what he does. His reply is, “If I enjoyed training large squirrels how to sumo wrestle, then that is what I would be doing…” In simpler terms, Shane has been interested in design since he was a kid and truly loves all aspects of art and graphic design. At Practice Cafe, he brings a hip, up-to-date design style, an ever-increasing ability for web design and search engine optimization, and he also has great taste in music, which is a frequent topic of conversation around the design studio.
Shane’s other interests include sports (especially basketball), movies, drawing, and wearing red socks every Friday. Shane and his wife, Heather, were married in 2002. They have a cute and rambunctious daughter named Hannah, and she is a great blessing to their family each and every day.
Brian Liddiard studied finance and accounting and then earned a Master of Professional Accountancy at the University of Utah. After his formal education, he’s had a lifetime of practical education with his hand in a bit of everything, including accounting, consulting, real estate management and development, brokerage, general contracting, and new business development.
After selling his homeowners association management company, Brian took on the business development of Practice Cafe. He is responsible for much of the “behind the scenes” work that makes PC’s marketing campaigns both affordable and successful for clients around the country.
In addition to his broad professional experience, Brian has a lot of experience volunteering at church and keeping an eye on his four daughters, who are always giving him a run for his money – literally. Angie and Tara are grateful for the opportunity to work with their dad, as he is a terrific boss in addition to being an exceptional father.
Brian doesn’t really have spare time, but he’s sure that if he did, he’d be a man of great wealth and leisure, a connoisseur of fine cheeses, and a drag racer among other things. While he waits for that, Brian does love the drags, classic rock music (especially Tom Petty), World War II history, basketball, and spending time with his family.
Tara Liddiard is happy to be working at Practice Cafe while she finishes her nursing degree. She works with PC’s clients on the fulfillment of direct mail campaigns, coordinating mailing lists, print jobs, and mail drop schedules. She enjoys working with PC’s diverse clients and team, because we’re like family! (Well, some of us actually are family.)
Tara’s baby son, Carson, spends time at the office, keeping everyone smiling. We joke that he’s an assistant to Dixie, Practice Cafe’s waitress “mascot” that you can see on our marketing materials.
In addition to working hard at Practice Cafe and loving the field of nursing, Tara’s passions are family, friends, and her two dogs, Tyler and Teya. Her other interests include dance, movies, good food, and shoes... This can be proven by her impressively extensive collection of heels, boots, and shoes to match any outfit.
Natalie Nohr grew up in Saratoga, California, which is a suburb of San José/Silicon Valley. She got a degree in liberal studies from West Valley College in Saratoga, graduating with her AA in 2003. She had planned to jump right into a bachelor’s degree after that, but she was offered a marketing position at Washington Mutual that was too good to pass up.
While at WaMu, Natalie was a sales office coordinator and enjoyed working with the marketing team there. She oversaw numerous creative marketing pieces, coordinated themed promotional events, and also gained valuable tradeshow experience.
In June of 2008, after Natalie’s husband, Mark, graduated with his BS degree, they packed up their cars and drove out to Austin, Texas. They love the friendly community here, and of course the great music scene. Natalie is excited to be working with Tara on Practice Cafe’s fulfillment, coordinating direct mail and taking care of clients’ design projects after they have been finalized.
In addition to creative arts and interior design, Natalie really enjoys music – both playing and singing. Her favorite music includes 80s and 90s alternative, electronica, and chill-out music that she can kick back to and just relax. Natalie is also a hockey fan, but she’s a picky one and will only watch it live. She loves the smell of the ice, the roar of the crowd, and – needless to say – the rowdy hockey brawls. As a San José fan in Dallas Stars territory, Natalie proudly cheers, “Go Sharks!!”
Becky Frieze was born in Georgetown, Texas, a town north of Austin. She graduated from Westwood High School, which is just around the corner from Practice Cafe’s office. As Controller at Practice Cafe, Becky not only brings a well-balanced character and steady presence, but with 10 years of accounting experience under her belt, she’s also great at balancing the books. She is always striving for excellence and seeking to expand her professional knowledge.
Becky and her husband, Gregg (who doubles as her best friend), have two kids—Amy and Rachelle. Their entire family bowls in leagues, and they love riding Becky and Gregg’s Harley Davidsons. Becky’s other interests include traveling, puzzles and crosswords, and shopping for shoes. She is also an enthusiastic NASCAR and college football fan, rooting for Kyle Busch and the Nebraska Cornhuskers. (She knows she’s a rebel to bleed Nebraska red in Texas Longhorn territory.)
We Look Forward to Getting to Know You & Your Practice, too!
