JPL Day 2026 brought our full team together to celebrate innovation, collaboration and the relentless evolution that defines our agency. The heart of this annual event is the Impact Awards, where we honor team members whose exceptional contributions in creativity, culture and client success have risen the bar on what it means to be part of the JPL team.
Client Whisperer Award
For those providing a consistent, outstanding experience to JPL’s clients—making their lives easier and helping to drive results.
Matt Ferguson, Senior Interactive Developer
Matt pairs exceptional technical skill with a clear, calm way of explaining complex ideas—so much so that many clients ask for him by name. Matt consistently goes above and beyond to deliver thoughtful, goal-driven work for digital clients, embodying the collaborative problem-solving at the core of JPL with the candor to tackle client needs head-on. On complex web projects with shifting goals and urgent requests, he navigates it all with patience and precision, brings out the best in the team, and keeps everyone calm, aligned and moving forward.
Bottom Line Award
For improving JPL’s financial performance through our practices, accounts, projects or internal processes.
Maria Clarke, Senior Digital Project Manager, PMP
Maria deftly navigates some of our largest accounts with smart project management and a sharp command of budgets. As work becomes more complex, she adapts projects as needed to ensure we deliver on our promise to clients. While managing several high-impact projects, Maria also earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification last year. Maria consistently brings clarity, accountability and calm every single day—keeping clients coming back and teams moving forward.
JPL Experience Award
For living up to the JPL Promise and embodying JPL’s culture.
Mike Isbell, Creative Operations Specialist
Mike, aka Izzy, truly embodies the JPL culture through dedication, professionalism and an unwavering commitment to others. Earning nominations in every single Impact Award category this year, Izzy’s colleagues saw him going above and beyond, working tirelessly to ensure everyone has what they need to succeed. His follow-up, reliability and availability make him a trusted teammate and an invaluable resource. With over 25 years at JPL, his influence can be felt throughout the agency’s success. He is the heart of our JPL community: positive, reliable, caring. Izzy leads by example and inspires all of us to do the same.
Trailblazer Award
For courageously taking on a new role, breaking down barriers or leading growth opportunities to advance JPL.
Meg Connolly, Senior Strategist
Meg stepped into uncharted territory and led two firsts for major brands: an influencer marketing campaign and playbooks for social strategy. From reaching out to influencers to writing contracts to keeping the whole content machine on track, she worked each opportunity from the ground up. Meg brought focus and a solutions-first mindset, pivoting seamlessly and staying calm under pressure. She established clear processes, created new tools and forged strong relationships internally and externally. Along the way, Meg brought positivity, celebrated teammates and shared learnings. True trail magic.
Behind the Scenes Awards
For the steadfast work that happens behind the scenes to make JPL successful with our clients.
Josh Cramer, Paid Media Buyer
Josh consistently exemplifies what it means to be a behind-the-scenes powerhouse. He plays a critical leadership role with paid media clients, ensuring the work is seamless, strategic and successful for each one. Clients trust him for his calm and reassuring demeanor, deep knowledge and his clarity when explaining outcomes. Josh prepares media plans with care, shares where clients can get the most bang for their buck and encourages smart, calculated risks. Plus, he’s leading the paid media team into new turf as a pioneer in AI technology. Josh puts in the extra effort behind the scenes—making our work stronger and our clients incredibly well-supported.
Cornerstone Award
For providing a strong foundation of leadership, direction and clarity, leading with vision and purpose and driving business success.
Anna Jensenius, Manager, Creative Operations
Anna is the kind of leader who becomes the foundation everyone relies on. Steady. Compassionate. Unwavering. When details are unclear, she builds a clear roadmap. When tensions rise, she leads with calm, honesty and fairness. Anna is a caring and empathetic leader and her team’s biggest advocate. She holds people accountable while helping them stretch, learn and grow. She provides clarity when things are chaotic and strength when teams need it most. Simply put, we wouldn’t be the same without her.
Platypus of the Year Award
The Platypus Award celebrates innovation and creativity at JPL. We recognize different teams and projects throughout the year with monthly Platypus Awards at our staff meetings. We then vote live at the Impact Awards to select the Platypus of the Year.
Award Winner: The LEAP Team
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Kevin Knoll, Assistant Manager, Development
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Jamie Serra, Senior Technical Project Manager
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Jeff Haskett, Manager Event Production
LEAP, our new Live Events Analytics Platform, stemmed from one question: how can we measure real-time emotion and attention in live experiences?
Jeff immediately saw the potential. And partnering with Kevin and Jamie, they turned that spark into an innovation that’s already reinventing audience analytics for JPL clients. Using video capture combined with smart AI models, they developed tools to report real-time engagement—revealing exactly when audiences connect most during events and pinpointing the kind of emotions they are portraying.
From concept to prototype to client application, LEAP gives JPL and its clients power to understand and elevate experience design. Their creativity and collaboration launched a breakthrough in experiential insight—and a well-deserved Platypus win.
Learn all about LEAP at our upcoming virtual event: Return on Experience.
Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s Impact Awards. Their creativity, dedication and ingenuity inspire all of us to push boundaries, embrace bold ideas and deliver extraordinary results. As we celebrate the successes of Matt, Maria, Izzy, Josh, Meg, Anna, Jeff, Kevin and Jamie, we also look forward to building on this momentum together in the year ahead.
Winners were nominated by their peers and receive a trophy, monetary award and, of course, bragging rights through the rest of the year.
