Ana Visneski has a BA in English, Master of Communication Digital Media and Master of
Communication in Communities and Networks from the University of Washington. Currently
the Sr Director of Communications and Community at H2O.ai, Ana previously worked for
Amazon Web Services promoted to the role of Head of Global Disaster Response after a little
over 2 years as the Head of Launch, Blog, and Podcast operations.
She has led classes in the ICS System, personal professionalism and security in social media. She
taught crisis communications as the PIO for the Area Maritime Security Committee in Los
Angeles. She has experience training both experience professionals and beginners in public
affairs and crisis communications.

During her time at AWS she built the Critical Event Protocol for AWS Marketing, a
comprehensive crisis response plan including internal and external communication operations.
As the Head of Global Disaster Response, she oversaw the technical operations for applying
AWS technology to disasters including Hurricane Dorian and the COVID19 pandemic. In this
capacity she also oversaw the communications about the AWS disaster responses internally and advised the PR team externally.

Prior to joining Amazon, she spent as an officer 12 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. There she was
a qualified Type 1 Public Information Officer, overseeing crisis communication responses for
major disasters from 2004 to 2016, including Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill, as well as
sensitive reputation management and personnel issues. In 2015 she deployed to the Arctic to
lead the effort to communicate the need for more support in Search and Rescue in the arctic,
resulting in a presidential visit to the region. She launched the first Coast Guard mobile app,
was the first official blogger for the service, led the team that built the service’s social media
program.