Home > About ASJA > Staff

Staff

Headquartered in New York City, ASJA is managed by Kellen, a global association management and communications company. The ASJA staff members are all employees of Kellen and follow Kellen’s Best Practices in execution of their jobs.

Holly Koenig, Executive Director
Holly Koenig is a Vice President of Kellen and since 2016 serves as ASJA’s Executive Director. She is responsible for creating an atmosphere for the leadership, volunteers and staff to succeed in meeting the objectives of ASJA’s mission, vision, plans and goals. Holly is a highly-skilled association executive with over 30 years of experience leading complex organizations at the international, national and local levels. She has served as CEO for dozens of nonprofits, trade groups and professional societies. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of New York Society of Association Executives and has received NYSAE’s Synergy Awards for distinguished service, volunteer of the year and association executive of the year. Holly lives on Long Island with her husband Andrew, teenage daughter, Lauren, and Lucky, the family Malshipoo. When she’s not managing ASJA business, Holly enjoys performing in and attending musical theatre productions.

James Brannigan, Associate Director
James graduated from Iona College with a major in Public Relations and a passion for journalism. During his time at Iona he wrote for an electronic music publication where he garnered over 300 bylines and covered dozens of music festivals and concerts across the tri-state area. James joined Kellen in 2015 and currently splits his time between ASJA, where he manages events, programs and WEAF, and the New York Society of Association Executives, where he also serves as Associate Director. James was born and raised in Long Island and is a die-hard New York Yankees fan.

James Cafiero, Membership & Communications Manager
James loves to travel and play tennis. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he attended St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn. A Business Management major with a concentration in Marketing, James was the President of the Investment Club and started his own business, which led him to be a pioneer of the entrepreneurial program in St. Francis. James' favorite memory is ringing the Closing Bell of the NYSE! 

Patrick Dougherty, Meetings Director
Patrick Dougherty has over 20 years of experience working in the association world. He spent 9 years with the American Legislative Exchange Council.  In 2005, he went to the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing in Alexandria, VA, as the Director of Meetings. Most recently, before joining Kellen, Patrick spent the last 7 years as the Senior Director of Meetings and Conventions at the National Community Pharmacists Association also in Alexandria, VA.  

During his career, he has developed extensive expertise in contract negotiations, logistics, housing, and budgets while building a list of contacts throughout the industry. Patrick graduated from the University of Alabama. He has been a member the American Society of Association Executives since 1998.

Sonya Moeller, Association Controller

 

© 2021 American Society of Journalists and Authors | All Rights Reserved | Contact Us
  • A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.
    – Sidney Sheldon
  • A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car.
    – Kenneth Tynan
  • A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self–addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
    – Ring Lardner
  • A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.
    – Marguerite Yourcenar
  • All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary – it's just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.
    – Somerset Maugham
  • Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
    – Christopher Hampton
  • Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.
    – Lawrence Kasdan
  • Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research.
    –Wilson Mizner
  • Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
    – Flannery O'Connor
  • I just wrote a book, but don't go out and buy it yet, because I don't think it's finished yet.
    – Lawrence Welk
  • I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
    – Douglas Adams
  • I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.
    – Stephen Wright
  • It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
    – Robert Benchley
  • It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
    – Andrew Jackson
  • Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks.
    – Richard Curtis
  • No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self–deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.
    – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
  • There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
    –Somerset Maugham
  • Writing a novel is like paddling from Boston to London in a bathtub. Sometimes the damn tub sinks. It's a wonder that most of them don't.
    – Stephen King
  • Writing a novel is like spelunking. You kind of create the right path for yourself. But, boy, are there so many points at which you think, absolutely, I'm going down the wrong hole here.
    – Chang–rae Lee
  • Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
    –Samuel Johnson