HOW I GOT STARTED
My Motivation
How do you do it? It's a question that's followed me for decades. I've had various people ask me that question. This is my attempt to answer it.
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I've always tried to keep my business and personal lives separated. I didn't think it was professional to share too much of my personal life in professional settings and vice versa. I've learned it's very difficult to separate the two and that you can benefit by learning from both experiences.
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So now I believe you must bring your whole self to the table if you want to thrive in today’s crazy world; your personality, your sense of humor, and most importantly, your heart. All of these elements brought me to rebrand and merge my professional and personal personas into one brand that helps others to position themselves professionally and personally with intentionality.
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Join me on this journey so that we may live, learn, and grow together in style.
Bio
An award-winning, strategic organizational executive and brand leader as well as a speaker and author with decades of experience leading staff and driving missions within member associations and non-profits. Since 2000, I've worn many hats, mainly as Director of Marketing and Communication, including growing advertising sales, branding, communications, and marketing programs for biomedical and STEM organizations such as the American Council of Engineering Companies, the American Physiological Society, and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. My experience has included strategic planning, developing on-site and remote teams, leading brands, re-brandings, and re-positionings, creating new products, spearheading membership recruitment and retention initiatives, and marketing all aspects of an association including extensive publications programs, education, meetings/conferences, public affairs, fundraising/development, strategic sponsorships/partnerships, and more.
I took my functional expertise in branding/marcom to transition to the executive management level as the first Associate Executive Director (and first one of color) for the Skin of Color Society (SOCS) where I partnered with the board of directors, staff, and other stakeholders to advance the mission to improve patient outcomes for people of color. Now, I lead the Journalism Education Association (JEA) as Executive Director.
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I'm a Certified Association Executive (CAE) with a Master of Science in Management (specialization in Marketing). I'm committed to the non-profit industry’s advancement and serve in multiple capacities including on the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) Marketing Professionals Advisory Council, co-chaired the ASAE Branding Subcommittee, as chaired the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives (CESSE) Membership Special Interest Group, on the American Marketing Association (AMA) DC Chapter’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and as a member of several other industry associations.
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I'm a Washington, DC native who believes in lifelong learning and sharing my knowledge with overs via mentoring, speaking, writing, training, teaching, and more. In my spare time, I'm an Adjunct Professor for West Virginia University Reed College of Media where I teach a master class on Internal Brand Communication. I'm also in the Doctor of Business Administration program at my Alma Mater the University of Maryland. Connect with me on LinkedIn.
My desire to develop others is strong and my entrepreneurial spirit and background as an image consultant has evolved to include helping other entrepreneurs competitively position themselves and their businesses. I also enjoy running, family time, movies, trying new restaurants and exploring new experiences which you can find glimpses of under my lifestyle section and on my social feeds.
