Meet The Team

Jo provides leadership and direction to a great Visit Team, which most often doesn’t need direction. Jo’s main responsibilities are: explaining the economic importance of visitor spending to Lafayette – West Lafayette; working with the attractions, facilities and organizations locally and statewide to help market, promote and develop tourism spending; and staying within the budget. Much of her time is spent on community relations and being involved with committees and organizations to help spread the word about Tippecanoe Tourism. Jo has been with VLWL since December of 1980. Jo grew up in West Lafayette and is a graduate of Purdue University, she lived in several other Indiana towns and Madison, WI, but she has mainly lived and loved this community. Jo is married to Dan Wade, retired, together they have two adult children. Courtney (daughter) who lives in West Lafayette. Tyler (son) who lives in Ypsilanti, MI. She and her husband have a large German Shephard dog named Bubba whose job it is to make sure they both get out to exercise several times a day.

Lisa serves as Vice President of VLWL. While she serves as financial controller by handling the business end of things for VLWL, she wears many other hats. She administers our grants program and coordinates most of our projects. In addition, she handles our advertising placement and marketing efforts. Her years of experience are an asset in providing guidance while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line. Lisa enjoys flower gardening, reading, vacations at the beach with family and friends and time on the golf course with her husband Jim.

Ashley Gregory is the "Director of Partnerships and Data". In this role Ashley works with our tourism partners to develop partnerships and opportunities to generate additional visitor spending in the community. This includes developing videos that showcase the community and our partners. In addition, she administers our customer relationship management (CRM) database program.

Emily serves as the Digital Asset Strategist for Visit Lafayette - West Lafayette. Emily maintains our organizations photo and video libraries, email marketing database, and brand consistency. Emily also assists with trail creation highlighting specific parts of the community. Emily graduated from Purdue University's Hospitality and Tourism Program with a concentration in environmental sustainability. She worked as a Visitor Information Specialist at Visit Lafayette-West Lafayette during college from 2017-2019 and is now continuing her passion for the tourism industry. In her free time, Emily enjoys traveling, attending MLB games, photography, plants, concerts, and spending time outdoors.

Energetic, talkative and funny characterize our Director of Communications, Sara Erickson. Sara uses her wit and savvy to create interesting stories on our blog and social media sites, while working in PR to personally promote Lafayette-West Lafayette. Her goal is to use social media tools and one-on-one interaction to promote Lafayette-West Lafayette as a destination to writers, travelers and locals. Sara is a graduate of Ball State University with a degree in Travel & Tourism and History. She enjoys traveling, reading, cooking, and hanging out with her family and friends.

Ari serves as the Visitor and Group Services Specialist. In this job, Ari's role is to oversee the Visitor Center and brochure distribution as well as coordinate any services groups, events, meetings, sports, etc. request. She has recently graduated from Purdue University in Hospitality and Tourism Management. In her free time, she loves to write for her travel blog, discover new coffee shops, take spontaneous trips, and listen to podcasts.

Gabbi serves as the Group Marketing Strategist for Visit Lafayette – West Lafayette. Gabbi’s focus is building relationships among the meeting, group tour and sports networks and providing assistance in finding how your group can host their next event in the Greater Lafayette Area. Gabbi is a proud Purdue University graduate, with a degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management. In her free time, she loves spending time with family and friends, walks with her dog, Luna, and playing soccer.