What have you accomplished in your professional life/career since your 40 Under 40 selection?
Excitingly, my career with Special Olympics Wisconsin (2000–2011) led me to Los Angeles, where I took on the vice president–communications position for Special Olympics Southern California as it won the bid to host the Special Olympics World Games in 2015 in Los Angeles! It was quite a roller coaster of PR events (pun intended) as one of my claims to fame was leading the project to break the Guinness world record (at that time) for the longest Ferris wheel ride, occurring on the world-renowned Santa Monica Pier. The venture surrounded our partnership with the worldwide Law Enforcement Torch Run, which is the largest fundraising arm for Special Olympics. One of our law enforcement officers took on the duty of “serving” on the wheel for 25 hours (I spent about four hours on it with media crews)! More than 40 TV crews attended from local and worldwide media, including helicopter media crews, gaining us more than 600 million impressions around the world! As we prepared the city for the arrival of the World Games, we assisted in building out a World Games staff and volunteer base. There was a whirlwind of PR events with the mayor of Los Angeles, many other dignitaries, and massive work with the USC and UCLA campuses, and other sports venues around the city.
Next up, I returned to Wisconsin and built the brand-new position of public information officer for the Verona Area School District, which is a relatively new position concept that is now catching on in school districts of all sizes. In this role, I was honored to be the face of the PR campaign surrounding the district’s referendum for the brand new Verona Area High School, which was scheduled to open this fall and earned an award of excellence with the Wisconsin School Public Relations Association.
As of June 2020, I began building out a brand new marketing and media position for JSD Professional Services Inc. and I am enjoying leaving my mark in a completely new industry!
What I’m most proud of is being able to truly dive in and help organizations build out brand new communications positions from scratch. Public relations is a role that used to often be overlooked until an organization reached a point where it needed incident control. More and more now, organizations understand the need for a role that can truly “brand” the organization and build out tools to show off the brand. From websites, to social media, to video production and graphics design, all the way to media relations — it’s been fun and challenging to take multiple organizations to that next level with their brand new positions.
What accomplishments, milestones, or endeavors have you attained in your personal life since your 40 Under 40 selection?
Since my 40 Under 40 selection, there are a few things I have dabbled in that could fall in the “YOU DID WHAT?” category of my life. To begin, I decided to take on the volunteer role of building out a PR plan for Madison’s brand new women’s professional football team (in 2011, called the Madison Cougars, now called Madison Blaze). But somehow, that morphed into me actually becoming a backup running back on the team. I was able to brings lots of media attention to the team, and certainly was more successful at that than actually running one of the 68 plays I had to memorize as a running back!
Secondly, I became an ordained minister, and it has been a joy to play such a crucial role in the most important day of a couple’s life together. This has also certainly opened up a new world of networking!
I am a proud Leadership Greater Madison graduate (Class 22) which was a great experience on a personal level to learn so many intricate things happening around our cities in Dane County that you would never be able to otherwise learn about. I have also become more involved with our local chamber of commerce, allowing me to grow in my community and network with lots of local business owners, which obviously has a direct effect on my professional life as well!
Lastly, I have done work for our local food pantry and for a charity that serves elderly individuals who need some extra help, but I’m always searching for that perfect volunteer role(s) as I desire to give back in various ways to the community.
If you were to “do it all over again,” what (if anything) would you do differently throughout your career?
If I were to do anything differently, I would have allowed myself to take the time to be “nosier” and gain more knowledge and experience in other departments outside of the PR role. For example, gaining more knowledge in the world of development/fundraising for Special Olympics. Or understanding more extensively the business/finance side of the various organizations I worked for. I think we all strive to do the best we can in our roles, and I truly focused on making sure I learned a “little bit about everything” in my organization rather than just a lot about one thing, since you must do so in the PR world. But sometimes you wear so many hats to efficiently represent the organization as the PR person (especially in my situation, where most of my jobs I started as a one-person department), it’s tough to spend extra time to learn the business side of the organization more extensively. I would appreciate having a better overall knowledge of how a business/organization works.
I also wish I would have taken Spanish as a second language in high school and college. I could still take classes (or purchase programs to help), but my last two positions of my career focused heavily on Spanish-speaking populations, and it would have been wonderful to have that language in my back pocket.
How did your 40 Under 40 selection help your career?
Being part of a 40 Under 40 class has been a wonderful honor. The designation gave me that little extra “confidence boost” that we all sometimes need as we “find ourselves” in our career. Certainly at that time of my life, I was working my way up the ladder in one organization, and having this designation was definitely a spotlight when I was chosen to make the move to Los Angeles to help with the World Games! It has also been fun getting to know a select number of other 40 Under 40 members, and watching our paths cross as our roles change throughout the years!
As I shared before, my career has taken an interesting path where I find myself in roles that require me building out a brand new PR position that did not exist before. Being a member of the 40 Under 40 team offers that extra “pizazz” that has helped me confidently interview to obtain these wonderful roles I have had!
What is something that you have a new passion for since the time of your induction — either professionally or personally?
As I have grown in my career, I have certainly learned how important internal PR is, just as much as external. In any organization, it will thrive and go above and beyond at all levels when employees are happy and truly feel they are making a difference in their role. It is my goal to continue spending extra time engaging staff members in all aspects of my PR role, but more importantly, creating an environment that also adds an element of fun. I believe that in all the roles I have served since college graduation, my supervisor, which has always been the CEO or leader of the organization, would admit that I had the “Director of Fun” hat on my head. From organizing regular themed staff potlucks, to adding some elements of fun to a holiday party, to consistently recognizing staff members for accomplishments or organizing employee gatherings, it truly matters. Younger generations of the workforce want to feel they are a part of the action in making a true difference in their organization. I have a passion for making sure that people can go to work and understand that they matter.
On a personal (and professional) level, one of the lessons college cannot teach you is the concept of empathy. It is an art to be able to put yourself in some else’s shoes, and in the world of public relations it can make all the difference. For 15 years, I had the honor of working alongside athletes with disabilities, and then for another six years I worked for a school district in which race, ethnicity, gender, and even religious background were always in the spotlight to ensure that every student could succeed in their learning environment.
Whether I was working with donors or coaches for Special Olympics, parents of my athletes or parents of my school district students, staff members of those organizations I worked for, or even board members, no matter who the demographic is, I think there is nothing more important than striving to understand where someone else is coming from. Empathy will take you far — again, I have a passion for making sure that people can go to work and understand that they matter. It took time and maturity in the workplace to learn that.
Based on your experience, do you have any advice for today’s young professionals (under 40)?
It is so important to make time for networking! It’s very easy to get caught up in day-to-day busy schedules and put those networking events in the “don’t have time” category. When you begin filling your cellphone contact list with new individuals you meet, take the extra time to record where this person is from and even more importantly, where you met them. I have learned the world is so very small and I can’t tell you how many times I have met individuals who know someone I know, especially in these days of social media connections. Life is so much who you know, and it’s amazing how much those contacts can affect a future position you are applying for or affect the direction your life may take in a personal venture. I never thought I would move across the country to Los Angeles. I never thought I would somehow take the path in my career where I’m consistently building out brand new PR positions for multiple organizations in totally different industries. I never thought I would play women’s football or become an ordained minister.
It goes a long way when you can make someone’s day by acknowledging them and knowing where they work or how you met them. Everyone wants to feel like they have had an impact or left an impression in this world.
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