ABOUT CITATION LABS

Garrett began Citation Labs because he’s always valued real thought leadership and advocating for buyers. He believes the internet is a minefield of weak content and unnecessarily difficult buying journeys.His mission is to fix that by helping businesses get more visibility on their thought leadership while making it easier for buyers to make the most informed purchasing decisions.

Over the years, Garrett has built an intrepid fellowship of collaborators (teammates! clients! publishers!) to uncover unspoken and unrealized connections between concepts, data, customers and communities in mutually beneficial ways (often including links).

Fun fact: A Radagast who aspires to be Gandalf.

Valerie specializes in process creation and refinement. She’s an efficiency seeker and devotee of time management. She works at Citation Labs because she gets to work with some of the coolest people on earth.

Fun fact: She’s a chewing gum connoisseur.

With 25+ years in SEO and digital marketing, James hopes he has picked up a thing or two that may be of value to others. He does his best to apply what he’s learned to the benefit of the company and clients at every opportunity.You can often find James wandering the backcountry or a spreadsheet of data (usually not at the same time).

Kristina joined the team in 2015 because she was immediately fascinated by link building’s powerful impact on page rankings. Having a role in several areas of the company, from writing and editing to outreach strategy to special projects designed for individual clients, she’s had a lot of fun experimenting and seeing the team’s ideas lead to measurable results.Her biggest job is being a mom to 4 kids—two of whom are miniature dachshunds, Buddy and Holly (named after the songwriter and bandleader of the Crickets, not the Weezer song).

Fun fact:She’s a member of SAG-AFTRA and has appeared in dozens of minor roles and background parts in movies, TV and streamed shows, commercials, and even a music video.

Suzanna’s passion for words brought her to Citation Labs, where she started as a writer on contract. She quickly fell in love with the company culture and progressive marketing tactics. Gradually her role here increased to full-time writing, then editing, then leading an editing team. Now, she does “a little of this and that” to meet client needs and satisfy publisher interests.When she’s not Citation Labbing, she paints watercolors professionally. Her work “Storytellers” and “Under Construction” are part of the Citation Labs collection now and hang in the office at the Story building.

She’s mom to 5 furkids: Easton and Westley, who are five-year-old half-Arabians, Liam (Pug), Rockwell (Great Dane Cross), and Winslow (Pug).

Fun fact: She was gifted her first horse, a purebred, off-track Arabian (yes, there is such a thing!) by an art gallery owner the evening of an opening reception. They rode 25- and 30-mile races together. Sometimes, they even won!

Erika is an AI whisperer, editor, content creator, problem-solver, and ideator. Initially, she started working at Citation Labs in a small role. But, it quickly became clear that it was a great fit. She enjoys problem-solving, independence, and the opportunity to find new ways to achieve business goals.She enjoys working from home, and values balance, stability, and continuous growth—both personally and within the company. She also loves the challenge of venturing into new territory and supporting the team through content creation and strategy.

Fun fact: In a former life, she worked as an artisan baker at a French bakery in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Karsten excels at editing, content creation, and prompt-writing. He also has exceptional attention to detail. Karsten started part-time at Citation Labs in 2017. A few months later, he was full-time, captivated by working with talented people in an ever-evolving industry.He enjoys the supportive and friendly workplace culture and having the opportunity to work with motivated and skilled colleagues. He appreciates the freedom to work and problem-solve independently and values managing his schedule for a better work-life balance.

Fun fact: He’s an avid ice and street hockey player.

Todd excels at writing, editing, and finding his way around the world of AI imagery and video. Citation Labs allows him to use his skills and talents in a way that’s satisfying and rewarding. He finds being surrounded by a group of supportive, creative people who are always ready to lend a hand whenever it’s needed the best part.

Fun fact: Todd once co-wrote a movie called “Glorious” featuring the voice of Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons.

Michael has a pretty extensive background as a writer, magazine editor, and English teacher—since a lot of creative writing is smoothening out the language, improving the flow and “music.” He’s at his best when tinkering with phrasing (or overly obsessing about something linguistically only he would notice).He loves the freedom and flexibility of working at Citation Labs, especially when teaching opportunities dried up in his area.

Michael is a dork who loves watching history and science documentaries, as well as cheesy horror movies. He’s also a political junkie. And he’s been addicted to weightlifting since he was a kid.

Fun fact: He’s fortunate enough to publish a fantasy series and six poetry books (twelve, if you count chapbooks, which are basically just shorter “greatest hits” books). He’s also published a few hundred stories and poems in magazines around the world.

Jason eliminates redundant redundancies. He loves the excellent people and flexible environment of Citation Labs.

Fun fact: He played on a competitive trivia team in college.

Alex excels at content in the Health & Wellness, Entrepreneurship, and Christian Living categories. He’s worked at Citation Labs since 2018 because he can write and edit various topics, which keeps the work interesting.He finds the leadership team awesome and a family-friendly team that does a fantastic job of facilitating a productive work environment while allowing team members to prioritize their families.

Fun fact: He processes much of the day’s information musically—often singing melodies about his work and life tasks, beatboxing his way through them, and annoying others along the way!

Jen is an outreach specialist who focuses on meeting client expectations, pivoting to help out whenever and wherever needed, and providing a good laugh on our Slack channel.She enjoys working at Citation Labs because she finds the work super interesting/rewarding and gets to work alongside an awesome group of people who show up and show out every single day.

Fun fact: She’s 32 years old and still can’t snap.

Lindsay enjoys putting her creative thinking skills to work on link-building campaigns—brainstorming outreach ideas, crafting strategic outreach projects, and fine-tuning content like a pro.She loves working at Citation Labs for its fully remote setup and flexible schedule—but even more so, she enjoys being a part of the dynamic, collaborative team that makes large-scale link-building possible.

When she’s not busy wrangling links, you can find Lindsay testing her knowledge with her team at a weekly pub trivia! And she’s based in Asheville, where she hits the trails with her rescue pup, Babe.

Rachel has a background in communications, management, and email marketing. She’s highly organized, detail-oriented, and determined to push hard every week to build links for clients. And she loves working with her amazing, hard-working team.

Fun fact: She’s fascinated with UFOs and aliens. And she’s a huge Billy Idol fan.

Chris works tirelessly alongside the CL team to connect great publishers with great content to make the internet a better place. He lives with his wife and two kids under the rule of a tyrannical Pomeranian and watches more movies than any person should.

Lee focuses on holistic SEO, link building & community PR strategy, and data analysis. He works closely with Citation Labs, Zipsprout, and our clients to ensure link-building engagements make sense for them, ensuring maximum impact and ROI while keeping an eye on the future of AI, LLMs, and evolving trends in SEO and local search.He started working in SEO with an in-house team at a large health insurance broker that worked with Citation Labs. Part of his job was reviewing the links Citation Labs built for the business. He was always impressed at the quality of these links and the scale they delivered.

Later on, he became an SEO lead at a popular e-commerce brand. When it was time to build links, he reached out to Citation Labs because he knew they were the best. And he was blown away by the thought that went into every call, the attention to detail, and the no-nonsense approach to building links.

This relationship led to Lee joining Citation Labs full-time.

Fun fact: Before working in digital marketing, he was a professional backpacking guide and DJ (not at the same time, unfortunately).

Andrea specializes in turning ideas into reality, whether brainstorming new product concepts, refining existing tools, or making sure every feature is both user-friendly and technically sound. She loves finding creative solutions to complex problems and working closely with developers and stakeholders to bring great products and features to life.Andrea focuses on balancing user needs, technical feasibility, and business goals to create products that make an impact. And she enjoys working at a company that values innovation, collaboration, and making a real impact.

At Citation Labs, she gets to build tools that solve real problems while constantly learning and growing, both personally and professionally. She’s proud of the work they do, and that’s what motivates her every day.

Fun fact: Andrea tends to work from different places—sometimes from her desk, a cozy café, or the occasional location that seemed like a good idea until the WiFi had other plans.

Jef swapped code reviews for compost piles. These days, he’s busy sowing seeds, staking tomatoes, and insisting that those six-foot jalapeños were “completely intentional”. 🙄

Fun fact: He’s fluent in multiple languages, but only the kind computers understand.

Michael manages operations data reporting, streamlining team communications, identifying process improvements for long-term solutions or automation, and collaborating with the development team to drive company growth.He works at Citation Labs because he didn’t have a choice… (joking!). The CEO poached him from the beer industry, where he managed a taproom/brewhouse, and said, ‘Hey, do you know how to build spreadsheets?” The rest is history.

Michael has worked with Citation Labs for over 8 years and couldn’t imagine being elsewhere. He sees the people he works with as smart, inventive, funny, and a true pleasure.

Fun fact: I’ve always been good at recognizing the voice actor behind a character (cartoon, animated, masked etc…).

Madison Arnett is a full-stack software developer. She works with Citation Labs to help make an impact through SEO and work with cool people.

Fun fact: She likes roller coasters, kayaking, and video games.

Luke focuses on full-stack programming, building software solutions, and agile team development. He helps Citation Labs by answering new and upcoming questions in SEO with software and technology. And most importantly, he never stops learning.

Fun fact: He’s a rock climber! When he’s not working on CL’s awesome projects, you can probably find him at Climb Nulu in Louisville.

Tate focuses on speed and code delivery. But he never forgets the most important thing is to keep a great working environment.He enjoys the fact that Citation Lab constantly innovates, converting ideas into software, making it an excellent place to combine hard technical skills and creativity. And he enjoys seeing small ideas materialize into profound products and services.

Fun fact: Don’t ask him anything about pinball machines unless you have at least an hour to hear about them.

Alejandro has been in manual testing for over 14 years, working with both web and mobile applications. While finding bugs is important, his focus goes beyond that. He enjoys helping the whole project grow by improving processes, supporting agile methodologies, and keeping everything organized.Alejandro works on ensuring high-quality products by identifying potential issues early, refining development workflows, and continuously looking for ways to enhance overall product quality. He also collaborates closely with the team to make every release better, ensuring features are well-tested and smoothly delivered.

Fun fact: He’s into sim racing. He recently got his dream guitar, so he’s finally getting back into playing after a long break.