April 2023

Sarah Ganbat

Sarah Ganbat has a variety of experience in content creation, digital and social media marketing, marketing analytics, and digital strategy. She loves to dig into the “why” of outcomes and decisions by using qualitative and quantitative data. She recently earned her MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she focused on analytics, innovation, and digital product management. Sarah enjoys reading, nature, and spending time with her husband and family.

Melissa Shumaker

Melissa Shumaker enhances demand gen and lifecycle campaigns for clients ensuring a consistent and meaningful experience throughout the entire journey. With a diverse marketing communications background in B2B and B2C, she uses her strategic approach and collaboration skills to add value by finding and integrating the customer’s voice to produce campaigns that drive results. She has experience working in several marketing automation platforms, is certified as a Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email Specialist and is currently working to add Marketo certification to her credentials. She also enjoys using her journalism degree to contribute copywriting and content as projects allow. Melissa is married to Mark and lives ridiculously close to the Grapevine office. They have two grown sons and recently filled their empty nest with six chickens who live contentiously with two dogs named Maggie and Cash. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys tending her garden to attract more butterflies and hummingbirds and taking long Griswold-style road trips to vacation in the mountains or visit the boys out of state.

Jason Duff

Jason Duff is a web, UX and design lead at Ascend. His focus is on listening, learning, and sharing to help improve customer journeys and experiences. His peers describe him as someone who never turns down an opportunity to learn something new. Jason has his MFA in Art and Technology from the University of Texas in Dallas. He worked with PHD candidates to create educational games for children struggling with neurobehavioral disorders. He has worked in a variety of experience design roles on a wide range of platforms. Jason is married and has three children. He enjoys spending time with his family, playing the piano, woodworking, hiking, and traveling.

Gabrielle Richey

Gabrielle Richey earned her B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Texas in Arlington. She graduated at the top of her class and was on the board of her sorority as the Academic Chairman. Before joining Ascend, she worked in various roles serving nonprofit, healthcare, e-commerce, and marketing research. Her passion is all things inbound marketing and MarTech. Her specialties include email automation, social media, and event promotion. What she loves most about Ascend? The culture of continuous self-improvement and innovation. Always up for a new challenge, she recently began kickboxing!

Gabriele Erickson

Gabriele Erickson has more than 25+ years of experience in project management. She started her career in television production and post-production in the 90’s. Where she gathered and mastered skills in managing projects, people, finance and resources. She loves learning new tech, problem solving and coming up with more efficient ways to accomplish her goals. Gabriele grew up in Atlanta and has spent much of her adult life exploring the world. She is a recent empty nester, who is eager to delve into this new territory with excitement. She shares a home with two dogs and a cat, who allow her to live there for free. In her leisure time she explores new places, people, experiences and food. She feels blessed to be working for a company that encourages a balance between work and family.