2026 ARF Member Awards

ABOUT

ARF Member Awards are distributed each year across three categories to individuals who have shown exceptional contributions and collaboration with the ARF. View past winners.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2026 WINNERS

The ARF is honored to announce the winners of the Member Ambassadors of the Year, Outstanding Members of the Year, and Young Pros of the Year.

	This Award recognizes Member Ambassadors who have demonstrated significant engagement and collaboration with the ARF alongside their companies. The role of a Member Ambassador includes acting as a representative of the ARF, fostering active membership, and communicating key messages and points of activation to their company.
Amy Madden SVP, Global Industry Partnerships, Nielsen	Amy took on the ARF Member Ambassador position this past year and jumped headfirst into the role. She is a wonderful partner, fully committed to Nielsen’s ARF membership, ensuring the broader Nielsen team is engaged and maximizing member value, and that the ARF team has a solid understanding of Nielsen’s business priorities. She’s cultivated a collaborative and dynamic relationship. Thank you, Amy! BIO: Amy Madden is SVP, Global Industry Partnerships at Nielsen, where she leads the company’s industry relations team. Her work is critical in reinforcing Nielsen’s position as the leader in marketing intelligence and accurate cross-platform measurement, supporting best-in-class solutions across TV, streaming, live sports, radio, and podcasts. Prior to this role, Amy worked at PwC, where she collaborated with TMT clients on transformative consulting solutions alongside global tech alliances. She is committed to collaborative success through strategic planning, relationship building, and leveraging industry expertise to deliver sustainable growth. A passionate advocate for women in sports and business, Amy serves on the board of the LPGA Amateurs Golf Association, dedicated to leveraging golf as a tool for women’s success in the corporate world. She resides in New York City with her husband and their “Chief Barketing Officer” dog, Manchego.
Sarah Ryan Senior Director, Everyday Health Group	Sarah has been a great supporter of the ARF throughout Everyday Health Group’s (formerly BabyCenter’s) membership and a strong advocate for the value the ARF provides. Year after year, she has made sure the ARF remains an important part of her company’s decision-making toolkit and has consistently championed renewing the membership each year. Her continued support and engagement have meant a great deal to the organization and is a very deserving recipient of this award. BIO: Sarah Ryan has been involved with the ARF since 2018. She currently serves as Senior Director of Research and Insights for Everyday Health Group Pregnancy & Parenting, supporting the BabyCenter, What to Expect and Mom 2.0 brands. A seasoned consumer insights professional, Sarah uses 20 years of experience to help brands keep their fingers on the pulse of what is most important today. In addition to being a thought leader in the pregnancy and parenting industry, Sarah drives further impact with brand and ad measurement, audience and user experience insights. Prior to joining Everyday Health Group, Sarah led teams at Johnson & Johnson, Kantar, and Harris Insights & Analytics. She is an active volunteer in the research industry, and is passionate about teaching and mentoring. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys hiking, baking, listening to live music, and experiencing the world through travel. She holds an MBA from the University of Rochester and professional certifications from NYU/ARF, RIVA and Burke.
	This Award recognizes individual Members who have gone above and beyond in contributions and partnership with the ARF. Among the 400+ companies that comprise our membership constituency, this honor is bestowed upon only a select few members each year. The ARF is a membership driven organization and member participation is critical to the success of our programs.
Moffat Frazier SVP, Future of Consumer & Culture, Horizon Media	Moffat has been a dedicated and effective Co-chair of the Pharma Council since 2023. In that role, she has helped to inaugurate a completely new model for producing and delivering Council content – the Pharma Council Spotlight Series – and has nurtured its success by curating speakers for the podcasts, writing Spotlight Perspectives pieces, and creating infographics for the series. In addition, she has pushed to maintain the quality of the Pharma Council’s output and continues to propose innovative ideas for Council exploration. BIO: Moffat Frazier brings over 20 years of expertise in data-powered human understanding, with experience spanning a wide variety of verticals and a particular emphasis on healthcare, pharma, and wellness. She serves as Co-Chair of the ARF Pharma Council, where she recently co-authored the council’s piece on the Responsible Use of AI. A driving force for innovation, she has also spearheaded thought leadership, such as The Marketer’s Guide to AI and the upcoming Marketing to Machines study, which explores how AI is reshaping consumer trust. Operating at the intersection of insights, thought leadership, and strategy, she transforms category, consumer and cultural knowledge into strategic advantage for leading brands and organizations.

Outstanding Member of the Year Winner

Tania Missad

EVP, Insights, Strategy & Analytics,
Sony Pictures Entertainment

Tania has been a tremendous supporter of the ARF and the LA Media Research Council for many years. She has shared her expertise as a speaker at the ARF OTT conference since 2022 and has been an active contributor to industry conversations around streaming and measurement. This year, she was instrumental in helping Sony Pictures host the ARF/CIMM TV NOW conference in October, making her a very deserving recipient of this award.

BIO:
Tania Missad is a leading insights and strategy executive with more than 25 years of experience helping global brands and entertainment companies understand audiences, build franchises, and drive growth. As EVP of Insights, Strategy and Analytics at Sony Pictures Entertainment, she leads audience insights, content strategy, data analytics and AI-driven initiatives across the company’s global television portfolio, helping inform key creative and business decisions across production, distribution and finance. Prior to Sony, Missad served as Head of Global Corporate Research, Data Analytics and Insights at Warner Bros. Discovery and held leadership roles at Mattel, where she helped shape consumer strategy for the Barbie franchise. Throughout her career, she has worked with some of the world’s most iconic brands and companies, including Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Neutrogena, Mattel, Warner Bros. Discovery and Sony Pictures Entertainment. A recognized leader in audience intelligence and media analytics, she is a recipient of the 2026 TVOT Achievement in Data and Measurement Award, was named one of the Advertising Research Foundation’s Outstanding Members of the Year and serves on the board of the Geena Davis Institute.

GMA Winner

Robert Moakler

Research Scientist,
Meta

Robert is a deeply engaged ARF member and has been generous with his time and expertise; providing input and guidance on the ARF’s Research Leadership Committee, hosting events and managing Meta’s engagement with the ARF’s Marketing Science Institute. Rob is a true partner and exemplifies the best of the ARF!

BIO:
Robert Moakler is a Research Scientist at Meta where he works on projects related to causal inference methodologies, the impact of cross-channel marketing campaigns, and optimizing ad delivery. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the NYU Stern School of Business in 2017. While attending NYU, Robert worked at Integral Ad Science where he did applied data science research that developed methods for causal inference using large-scale digital data with a focus on advertising.

This Award is in recognition of an outstanding ARF Young Pro who has shown exceptional leadership, important contributions to their organization and/or to the ARF and is on a path to future potential for industry impact.

Young Pros Winner

Megan O’Brien

Associate Director, Primary Research,
Omnicom

Megan is a long-standing member of the Young Pros Advisory Board and has consistently shown up as a reliable, engaged, and proactive leader within the community. She is always among the first to volunteer and readily takes on new opportunities to support ARF initiatives, bringing both enthusiasm and follow-through to everything she does. Her steady presence, clear communication, and willingness to step up wherever needed have made her an invaluable part of the Young Pros program and a strong example of emerging leadership in the industry.

BIO:
Megan O’Brien is an Associate Director of Primary Research on the OM Intelligence team at Omnicom Media. In this role, Megan leads the design and execution of custom primary research supporting client strategy, new business, and agency thought leadership. Her work spans consumer sentiment, generational marketing, media behavior, and cultural trends, uncovering the “why” behind consumer behavior and translating insights into compelling, meaningful storytelling for brands. Megan focuses on surfacing the intelligence that helps teams make smarter, more informed media and marketing decisions. Prior to her current role, Megan worked on the research vendor side, where she built deep expertise in the design and execution of consumer and market research studies. Megan’s passion for research is rooted in her background in psychology and natural curiosity about human behavior. Megan earned an M.S. in Psychology from the University of Edinburgh and a B.S. with a dual major in Biology and Psychology from Stony Brook University.

Young Pros Winner

Leanna Bornkamp

Senior Director, Product Growth,
DIRECTV

As a new Young Pros Officer in the Cognition Council, Leanna volunteered at her first meeting to edit the Council’s sprawling, multi-author white paper on the cognitive processes underlying consumers’ responses to advertising. Over the next year, she led the other Young Pros Officers in converting this white paper into a more streamlined, digestible guide with a consistent voice and clear takeaways. In doing so, she earned the praise of all of the white paper’s authors on the Council. This seminal, comprehensive guide (called “The Brain on Advertising”) was published earlier this year and will remain a seminal reference volume on cognition in the advertising industry.

BIO:
Leanna Bornkamp is the Senior Director of Product Growth and Innovation at DIRECTV Advertising. She has 10 years’ experience in both theoretical (NYU Stern) and practical contexts (DIRECTV, WarnerMedia, Xandr, & AT&T), which has influenced her perspective on media, ads, tech, and innovation. In her current role, Leanna manages the roadmap for innovative ad formats and leads competitive intelligence. She also makes strategic recommendations for future positioning of the DIRECTV Advertising business. Leanna earned her bachelor’s degree at CUNY Baruch College and her Master of Business Administration in Business Analytics and Marketing from the NYU Stern School of Business. She regularly offers guest lectures at Baruch, NYU Stern, and the University of Oklahoma across disciplines including Entertainment & Media, Digital Business Strategies, and Media Ethics. Her passions include consumer behavior, sensory marketing, and behavior economics for the greater good. In addition, Leanna co-leads the DIRECTV Advertising culture council, Orbit, and leads initiatives related to Inclusion and Growth & Development. Since fall of 2024, she is an active member of the ARF Young Pros and has worked closely with the ARF Cognition Council on the recently released white paper: The Science of Ad Impact: How Minds Process Advertising. Leanna spends her free time singing in community choir, playing Dungeons & Dragons & reading sci-fi, and learning all sorts of DIY skills with her family (framing and sheetrock are great, but demolition is her favorite!).