Embracing a New Chapter in Life

I moved in with family to see if the DC job market would hold my next opportunity. It did. Within a month, I got a job as an administrative assistant in a government consulting firm, Macro International which was later acquired by ICF. It was a completely different industry but also driven by sales, business to government rather than direct to the consumer. I had a terrific boss and mentor that taught me all aspects of the business from research techniques to data analysis, to organizational development, relationship building, and yes, communications and marketing. 

I found my niche and met colleagues that would become life-long friends. I spent the next 11 years working my way up in the organization to a Senior Project Director managing creative for multi-million dollar communications and materials development contracts for numerous U.S. Federal government clients. My role included writing and pricing for proposal development as well as developing marketing materials and other business development pitches. My projects were diverse ranging from preventing teen suicide, to tackling prescription drug abuse in older adults, to encouraging school children to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. A reminder of my work to this day with the U.S. Department of Transportation is the road signage we developed as part of a national campaign to improve trucker safety. I pass the signs every time I head to the Savannah airport on the I-95 corridor and smile with fond memories. After more than a decade, shifts in the company direction prompted me to search for my next professional challenge.

March of 2012 started what I'd characterize as the most transformative years in my career. I was hired by the Chief Communications Officer at Abt Associates to lead, build, and expand the corporate and client-facing capabilities of the Creative Services Department as its Senior Manager. No such department existed, and it was a blank slate for me to define our charter, set our goals, establish processes, and build the team from the ground up. Luckily there were some creative staff sprinkled in different parts of the company at the time that soon became the backbone of our team. I argued for the centralization of this function for several reasons, 1) to improve brand consistency and quality control across the firm, 2) to reduce outsourcing and increase the revenue generating potential from an in-house design studio, 3) to offer faster turnaround and agility for client deliverables, and 4) to foster greater collaboration and innovation from working directly with us as creative experts. My supervisor trusted me, encouraged me, and let me do my thing.

That became a motto of sorts among our team in response to the often-last-minute day, night, and weekend requests we would get and be expected to perform magic sorcery to meet a deadline. But we always did. We'd get it done. Still do. As Senior Director, our team of four grew to 26 over the past decade and became a well-oiled machine and truly the best part of my job. 

For over 26 years, I have designed and delivered multifaceted training programs for a variety of learners including health providers, housing professionals, transportation officials, and numerous federal agency staff. During that time, I have focused on developing communications plans, conducting audience research, crafting partnership strategies, and developing multimedia products to support community outreach, stakeholder engagement, training initiatives, and brand-building activities. 

In 2017, I led creative direction on the CDC Zika Prevention Communications Campaign in which Abt earned a MarCom Platinum Award for outstanding traditional and social media in the areas of quality, creativity, and resourcefulness. We developed and disseminated over 370+ products over a 3-month period reaching over 37 million people in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. For my team efforts on winning and delivering on that work, I won Abt's George Michaels Award (not the singer), for Outstanding Entrepreneurial Accomplishment for building a cross-company communications practice, achieving $30 million in sales, and developing a pipeline of opportunities across diverse clients. 

Recently, I've led interactive product planning, scriptwriting and video production for programs and events in the domestic and international health markets, as well as promoting environmental sustainability, workforce development and safety initiatives, and fair housing programs nationwide.