Who We Are

President

lynn@astrawow.com

Lynn Hinkle is founder of ASTRA Communications in Kansas City, and has more than 30 years experience in marketing, public relations, advertising and public involvement. A small business owner since 1985, her clientele has included the region’s largest financial institutions, engineering firms, and government agencies.  

Public involvement expertise includes guiding complex government projects to fruition through a comprehensive planning approach that includes identifying and understanding key stakeholders, actively engaging the public in a pro-active process, and communicating positively through direct and mass media channels.

Examples include the Richards-Gebaur Master Plan, KCI Terminal Improvement Project, 10,000 Rain Gardens initiative for KC-One Stormwater Management, crisis communications for the Sprint Arena during the construction management phase, I-70 EIS for Mo-DoT, numerous projects for Kansas City’s Capital Improvement Management Office, Downtown Airport runway extension EA, Overflow Control Plan public involvement for KCMO, plan for two Plaza bridges and numerous other transportation projects.

Lynn is a 1979 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She has received national and international recognition for her creative work in video productions, including two International Film Festival of New York Awards, numerous Telly Awards for videos and television spots, and two national Pollie Awards for political television ads for congressional candidates; a public service radio commercial earned a national Silver Microphone award for radio advertising. She is listed in the 1990-91 edition of Who's Who in American Advertising; in 1994 she was selected by her peers in advertising to receive the AAF Silver Medal lifetime achievement award. 

Along with US Senator Nancy Kassebaum, Lynn was named a 1994 Kansan of the Year in recognition of her efforts to provide political leadership training to women in emerging democracies.  She received the JC Penney Golden Rule Award for community service. In 2000, she was presented the “Women Who Make a Difference Award” by the International Women’s Forum for her efforts to train Russian women for leadership in their emerging democracy through the nonprofit organization she founded in 1993, Women of the World.   

Strategic Partner

terryusina@comcast.net

Terry Usina Boyer is a consultant with significant experience in business process management, project management and public involvement. She specializes in engaging the public in projects that affect their quality of life, incorporating their voice in the project’s solution design. 

Prior to her involvement with ASTRA as a strategic partner, she was a senior executive in the banking industry specializing in operations and the administration of service quality initiatives.

Her summary accomplishments include:

• Developing, conducting, and analyzing stakeholder interviews
• Implementation and planning for systems conversions
• Merger and acquisition operational conversions
• Facilitation of strategic planning
• Teaching, coordinating and monitoring service quality initiatives.

Terry partnered in the founding of the award-winning Adventures In Imagination Business Education Partnership with US Bank, the Lawrence Public Schools and the University of Kansas Lied Center. The partnership reached thousands of K-12 students and their parents by enhancing reading, writing and critical thinking curriculum along with a visiting author and poet’s program. Ten years later the program continues to thrive in the Lawrence Public Schools.

Strategic Partner

steff@astrawow.com

Communication Designer Steffany Hedenkamp has more than a dozen years of experience in marketing, public relations, advertising, and design & layout.  Her clientele has included government agencies, engineering and architectural firms, national security corporations, utility companies, accounting and legal firms, national retail corporations and nonprofit organizations.

Steff specializes in clearly communicating complex ideas using written and visual strategies.  From distinctive logo design to compelling presentations, proposals, reports, websites, and both internal and external project deliverables, Steff has the uncommon ability to swiftly and precisely craft both the “words and design” of today’s most creative and effective communication tools.

In a previous life, Steff worked with Kansas City advertising and PR firm, Barkley Evergreen & Partners, Inc., a $300 million dollar agency, where she managed national client accounts involving PR, crisis communications, cause marketing, community relations, program development, strategic planning, and business development.

Steffany has received special recognition for her work in communications:

• PRISM Best in Show Award – Crisis Communications Program (2000)
• PRISM Silver Award – Special Events in Business (1999)
• One of 70 participants selected internationally to attend the Institute on Political Journalism at Georgetown University. Concurrent internship at the White House in the Office of Presidential Correspondence for the White House Chief of Staff.  (1993)
• Ninth in the nation in the editorials/signed columns  division – Awarded by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation (1992)

Steff attended Kansas State University's School of Journalism. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Women of the World, Inc., (wownow.org) a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1993, which works to provide women with the knowledge and skills necessary to build a civil society by participating in the democratic process.

Steffany’s husband, Bret, is a carpenter and luthier. They have three children: Oliver, Julia, and Wiley.

Strategic Partner

raMeridian@aol.com

Rania H. Anderson is a senior-level business executive with significant experience in performance consulting, human resources and executive coaching in large corporate and small business environments.  Her work with organizations and executives is specifically designed to help them improve their performance, and achieve their business goals more effectively and efficiently.

Working as a strategic partner with her clients, Rania defines performance expectations and helps to create plans to drive growth, new business and production. Equipped with a comprehensive performance perspective, Rania brings much to bear for her clients including sharp business acumen, an uncanny ability to get to the heart of issues and provide appropriate feedback.

Prior to establishing her consulting firm, Meridian, Rania worked with Bank of America, Nations Bank and its predecessor organizations for more than 16 years. There, she received a key leadership award for her excellence as a strategic business partner to the Virginia Bank President. While at Bank of America, she contributed in several capacities: Human Resources Director, Organization Development and Training Manager, and Commercial Lender.

Some of her many accomplishments include:

• implementing strategies to improve sales productivity
• designing and delivering executive training programs
• developing performance enhancement strategies
• designing and implementing management inventories and succession plans
• developing employee communication, connection and retention strategies

Rania has a Masters of Science in Foreign Service and International Business from Georgetown University (1984) and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oklahoma State University (1982). She has attended and achieved certification in various professional development programs, including: MBTI, Facilitative Leadership, Center for Creative Leadership and Managing Your Development.

Serving as a board member, Rania works with the Women’s Employment Network, a non-profit organization that trains and prepares low-income women to find employment. She has also provided a variety of HR support to other non-profit organizations.

Strategic Partner

janetcbaker@aol.com

Janet was a facilitator for Astra Communications at the post 9/11 U.S. Airport Commissioners Conference to develop recommendations for Congress on airport security, facilitated a fragile collaboration among three competing counties in KS for $1 million in federal funding for an Early Education compensation system, developed a multi-year pilot project to systemically improve employment in the urban core of Kansas City, Missouri, and led the public input process for the Kansas City, Missouri City Charter review process in 2002-2004. She also co-developed and wrote a business plan for a $56 million Early Education system for metropolitan Kansas City for the Metropolitan Council on Child Care.

She has designed and conducted strategic planning, qualitative and quantitative market research, organizational and board development and quality improvement/customer service quality processes for nearly 100 corporations and organizations, resulting in multi-millions of dollars in investment and funding of client organizations. She has served under three mayors on commissions related to self-sufficiency, sister cities, and reviewing and recommending changes to the 150 year old city charter, designing and leading the public input process. 

Janet has been married for twenty years to Greg Baker and together they have five beloved children and four grandchildren. They make their home in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Strategic Partner

kimcarlos@kc.rr.com

Kim Carlos brings over ten years of in-depth experience from the public, private and non-profit sectors.

With a B.S. in Marketing from Southwest Missouri State University, a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, she brings a wealth of educational background to the company.

Kim is a lawyer who has served as a litigation and public law attorney, a political consultant for various campaigns, legislative aide to a Missouri State Representative, Director of Community Affairs for the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, Senior Policy Advisor for a Kansas City Missouri City Councilman, and Development Director for an urban revitalization project in the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s City Planning and Development Department. 

Kim’s work in the Kansas City, Missouri Mayor, City Council and Planning and Development Departments, has provided her with experience in community-based planning and public involvement campaigns. As a former attorney with the law firm of Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, where she specialized in public law, Kim also understands the legal complexities that can accompany major public initiatives. Kim’s extensive knowledge of municipal planning, land use, zoning and community development issues, coupled with her keen understanding of both the legal and political environments, assists governments, developers, architects, engineers and planners in making their project become a reality. 

Strategic Partner

Dixie Butin assists with accounts payable and accounts receivable for ASTRA. A graduate of Kansas State University with a degree in journalism, she and Lynn Hinkle worked for the same advertising agency in Topeka, Kansas, where Dixie won many awards as a copywriter and television producer.

She joined the Army in 1989 to study Arabic at the Foreign Language Institute in Monterey, California, and there she met her husband, Joe. Dixie completed her service as a member of the Military District of Washington Finance and Accounting Office with duty at the Pentagon and Ft. Myer.

She has climbed mountains in Peru but denies ever wrestling alligators while living in Tampa, Florida.  Dixie is the mother of two gorgeous and brilliant children, Montana Swart (24) and Jesse Butin (4).