Our People
Lee Zoldan, President
lzoldan@thesimonsgroup.com
Lee founded The Simons Group in 1981 and SoFar Publishing in 2005. She operates both companies, overseeing their strategic direction, developing new business opportunities, recruiting and staffing, and assuring the overall quality of their work. Lee has a journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University.
Lee is passionate about making The Simons Group the best company it can be by attracting good clients and employees and ensuring they work well together. She also fosters a creative and vibrant organizational culture that empowers employees to produce their best work.
When she’s not being responsible and running The Simons Group, Lee is cooking with abandon, often with disastrous results. She considers a fire extinguisher and Band-Aids as essential to a well-stocked kitchen as a good set of knives. She also enjoys walking along the lakefront, going to art galleries, traveling and attending theatrical productions, and she devotes time to her publishing interests, with the goal of writing books about what people have learned throughout their lives.
In her past life, Lee used to be a TV producer and was a radio announcer for a late-night jazz show. She also taught marketing communications at the University of Chicago and other institutions.
Julie Dabrowski, Lead Generation Specialist
jdabrowski@thesimonsgroup.com
Although she grew up on a farm in Wisconsin that raised everything from peacocks and chickens to longhorn steer, Julie always knew the city life was for her. Her adventurous spirit brought her to Chicago for college, where she earned a bachelor’s in business administration. An internship at "The Jerry Springer Show" led to a full-time job as audience coordinator, handling booking, crowd control, security, and even seating people in an aesthetically pleasing manner. She also worked on several TV pilots before joining The Simons Group, where she is responsible for controlling crowds of a different sort – those who want to use our services. In her spare time, Julie likes to travel, ski, snow board and try different restaurants.
Kelly Goggins, Designer
kgoggins@thesimonsgroup.com
Kelly Goggins has been involved with the design world for almost a decade, graduating with a degree in graphic design from an exclusive college in her native Virginia. While at school, she interned as the graphic designer for the marketing department and won two AIGA Viewer’s Choice awards and was silver medalist at the Real Show in Washington DC.
After graduation, she worked at two East Coast agencies before deciding to move to Chicago for the design opportunities it afforded. She is a rarity among designers, being proficient at both print and Web design and coding, and believes her work in each medium makes her stronger in the other. In
general, she strives for design that is clean and organized, showcasing the copy points without overwhelming them. For that, our copywriters and clients are both grateful.
As a new Chicago resident, Kelly spends her free time exploring the city, trying new restaurants, running along the lake and learning her way around. Fortunately, she doesn’t need to learn her way around a design concept – her years of experience enable her to do that with ease.
Hilary Gowins, Editor
hgowins@thesimonsgroup.com
As an enthusiastic observer of the world, Hilary enjoys understanding what makes people tick.
In her role as a writer and editor with The Simons Group, she gets to combine this passion with her love of the written word, compiling compelling copy and informative materials for her clients.
Before Hilary joined The Simons Group, she was a reporter jack of all trades as an award-winning journalist for a suburban Chicago daily newspaper, where she covered everything from health to politics to feature stories.
Hilary, an Ohio native, also was lucky enough to spend four blissful years studying English at Kenyon College before moving to the great state of Illinois, where she earned her master’s degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
When she’s not working, Hilary loves to read. Her literary interests are diverse, including everything from Thomas Hardy to Eudora Welty, and she just finished re-reading all nine volumes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. Though her days on the basketball court are done (she played point guard at Kenyon), Hilary continues to enjoy watching college basketball.
Chris LaFrombois, Senior Web/Graphic Designer
clafrombois@thesimonsgroup.com
With more than a decade of graphic design expertise and a passion for website development and HTML coding, Chris can transform even the roughest ideas into creative, meaningful print and electronic collateral. He is also seasoned in audio production, editing and recording, and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sound recording at Columbia College to complement his bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.
At The Simons Group, Chris is responsible for designing and coding websites and electronic newsletters and maintaining existing websites. He also distributes e-newsletters and announcements for clients.
Believing that music is key to a joyful life, Chris records and mixes bands and writes his own music. A former member of several bands, he once got to meet his idol, Mike Patton, from the now-disbanded Faith No More & Mr. Bungle.
Lis Martin, Editor
lmartin@thesimonsgroup.com
A veteran reporter, Lis specializes in interviewing clients to identify the right message as well as the right channels to deliver it. At The Simons Group, she writes and edits copy in a wide range of formats, including newsletters, brochures, websites, press releases, case studies and ads. She is also skilled in promoting clients’ messages through blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
Before joining The Simons Group, Lis spent several years as a reporter at two respected daily newspapers, honing her writing skills and learning how to turn complex issues into compelling stories. During that time, she won the prestigious Peter Lisagor award for her work. Lis holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Chicago.
When she’s not at The Simons Group, Lis loves to cook, and is often in the kitchen trying out a new recipe with her husband. Right now, they’re cooking their way across the globe, country by country. If Lis had to subsist on just one food, though, it would be cheese.
To burn off all those calories, Lis spends plenty of time running along Chicago’s lakefront trail, which she considers the greatest feature of the city.
Dawn Wolfe, Editor/Senior Project Manager
dwolfe@thesimonsgroup.com
Dawn is celebrating more than a decade of work at The Simons Group, where she draws on her professional journalism skills to tell clients’ stories and work for their success and profitability. Formerly a respected daily newspaper editor and reporter, she skillfully tackles a wide variety of topics to tell compelling stories for clients and distill complex information for diverse audiences. Dawn has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from West Virginia University.
Outside The Simons Group, Dawn fulfills her passion for sailing as much as possible and serves as an able-bodied volunteer for disabled sailors. She also works with a horse rescue and rehabilitation organization, where she does everything from shoveling manure to grooming. The goats, chickens and other animals on the farm also benefit from a little TLC, even when they’re misbehaving.
In her free time, Dawn can also be found digging in her herb garden, tackling her growing collection of unread books and trying out new recipes.
Few people know it, but Dawn is an avid follower of Irish history and culture and would love to spend several months just traveling around the country.
