Our Team

At Merge, we’re a passionate team of designers, developers, strategists and creative thinkers guided by the belief that our success depends on your success.

Michelle Dodd

Founder + CEO

Michelle has a desire to magnify the reach of nonprofits and mission-driven small businesses through impactful websites and strategic digital marketing. With a belief that one’s personal mission can be achieved through meaningful work, Michelle creates an environment that inspires her team and builds valued, lasting partnership with clients.

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Dina Barnese

Project Manager + UX Strategist

As a UX Strategist, Dina applies human-centered design principals to websites and mobile apps, keeping the user experience top of mind. She approaches project management with a goal of guiding the client’s vision to reality, keeping the big picture in mind while managing details and tasks.

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Luda Polyakova

Digital Marketing & Content Strategist

Luda is a strategic and creative thinker who supports clients’ goals by conceptualizing, planning, designing, creating, editing, and publishing content. She enjoys working closely with clients to bring their brand vision to life.

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Brian Hutchinson

Creative + UX Designer

Brian is a digital creative designer who’s been helping businesses build a better brand experience through visual design for over 15 years.

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Lara Gomora

Digital Designer

Lara has been delivering creative web design and branding to businesses, startups, and nonprofits for the past decade.

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Julie Tuerk

Web Developer

Julie brings a diverse background to her practice of web development. She has studied computer programming, art, and psychology, and is also a certified sommelier.

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Stacey Schultz

Co-founder + Visual Designer

It was Stacey’s passion and enthusiasm for helping small businesses and non-profits elevate their online experience and digital strategy that led to her co-founding Merge.

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Michelle Dodd

Founder + CEO

Michelle Dodd is the founder and CEO of Merge Studio, a web design and digital marketing agency serving mission-driven organizations across the country.

After more than two decades in digital communications, Michelle finds joy in putting all the pieces together to raise the bar for clients: by building and leading the right team and finding and serving the right clients. Michelle’s experience in marketing and web development fosters a big-picture approach that leads to tailored, effective solutions.

Michelle spent a few years adventuring on multi-month self-supported bike tours, sea kayak expeditions, and through-hikes. These days she balances her time behind a screen with backpacking, mountain biking, and skiing with her husband and daughter.

Dina Barnese

Project Manager + UX Strategist

Dina joined the Merge team in 2017. As a UX Strategist, she applies human-centered design principals to websites and mobile apps, keeping the user experience top of mind. She approaches project management with a goal of guiding the client’s vision to reality, keeping the big picture in mind while managing details and tasks.

Dina has more than two decades of experience in the tech field. She has worked as a database and software developer, business analyst, UX designer, and project manager. She also has experience as a mediator: she served as a volunteer court-appointed mediator for eight years, during which time she continued training in advanced facilitation, negotiation, and mediation skills.

Outside of the IT world, Dina is a potter, musician and nature lover. She serves on the board of directors for the Flagstaff Foundry, a nonprofit performing arts incubator.

Luda Polyakova

Content Strategist

Luda is a strategic and creative thinker who supports clients’ goals by conceptualizing, planning, designing, creating, editing, and publishing content. With persuasive verbal and writing skills, she is a strong presenter and meeting facilitator who enjoys working closely with clients to bring their brand vision to life.

Luda’s well-rounded perspective comes from years of copywriting and content creation, including higher education, nonprofit, corporate, small business, and digital agency environments. With firsthand experience creating content, she brings a pragmatic point of view when managing projects and collaborating with her teammates and clients.

A meticulous editor, Luda will ensure your brand’s voice is consistent and true to what you stand for.

Luda admittedly still plays Wordle every day. When she’s not behind a screen, you’ll catch her staring wistfully out the window, making pottery, or enjoying the outdoors in Southwest Colorado.

Brian Hutchinson

Creative + UX Designer

Brian is a digital creative designer who's been helping businesses build a better brand experience through visual design for over 15 years, working with non-profits to tech startups. From concept creation to delivery, Brian brings a high level of professionalism and energy to everything he tackles. Although his expertise is in creating visual compiling websites and applications, he also excels at video production and motion design.

When he's not in the mountains snowboarding or mountain biking, he's in the studio composing, playing and recording music.

Lara Gomora

Digital Designer

Lara has been delivering creative web design and branding to businesses, startups, and nonprofits for the past decade. She has a strong background in marketing and brings both a creative and pragmatic approach to all design. Lara likes to dive deep into the needs of each client, expressing their most important value and messaging visually and consistently. She is a graduate of Northern Arizona University with a Visual Communications degree, with an emphasis in Graphic Design. Specializing in web design, she has created dozens of websites, brand identities, and other designs in the print and digital realms.

An avid nature and music lover, Lara is also the Marketing Director & Designer for Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival (one of the few Nonprofit music festivals around) and has been involved in the branding and management of the festival since its inception in 2006. She resides in Flagstaff, Arizona where she is active in the local arts and music community. She enjoys exploring trails, rivers and backpacking in her spare time, and hanging out with her little ten-pound dog Pancho and her family.

Julie Tuerk

Web Developer + Code Creator

Julie brings a diverse background to her practice of web development. She has studied computer programming, art, and psychology, and is also a certified sommelier. Her eagerness to learn new technical skills has enabled numerous small businesses and nonprofits to create an online presence, improve website functionality, and manage data.

Julie loves solving problems with creative solutions, but is equally at ease using traditional methods to help clients realize their vision.

Stacey Schultz

Co-founder + Visual Designer

Stacey is a 20-year design + marketing professional with a unique background that combines a decade as a web designer (both on the corporate and agency side) as well as another decade as a marketing director for a cultural travel company. She has led dozens of website and mobile app designs, encompassing everything from marketing content to complex online applications. She is guided by a belief that humans always come first, and the best technologies are those that go unnoticed but add value.Stacey has a 360-degree view of everything that goes into creating and maintaining successful websites and an in-depth understanding of all the skills needed to accomplish even the most complex projects.She has served as Interactive co-director on the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Board of Directors and on the artists’ committee at PlatteForum, a community-based non-profit for the arts in Denver. She left Merge in 2018 to pursue other opportunities.