Q: How did you become comfortable working in a very male-dominated industry?

It’s something that definitely takes time and it really does depend on what sport you're working with. I had a really great role model and female boss when I was at Syracuse. She was the head of the communications office and the football contact. Never once did I ever view her as a female in that industry. I just viewed her as someone who belonged in that role, who had been there a long time and gained the respect of her peers, staff, student-athletes and coaches. I think she's always just been a perfect example of when you're given a task, you find a way to do it. She was actually just featured in the most recent CoSIDA magazine.

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I think a lot of times when you're working in a male-dominated sport, like my experience with men's basketball, it's a combination of being young and partly being female -- I think being young was more of a hurdle than being a female. It’s important to assert yourself and be confident in your ability to do your job from the beginning and setting that tone and expectation that I'm here to do a job and not only am I here to assist (the primary men’s basketball sports information director), but I can stand on my own two feet and answer questions and be helpful. At the beginning, I leaned on (the basketball SID) a lot for a lot of questions but once you get more experience and learn to stand on your own feet, you quickly gain the respect of those around you. It just takes that time to earn respect. It was really just doing the best that I could and showing that I could do the job over time.

 

Q: What is a piece of advice you would give yourself when you were just starting out?

One of the biggest things, looking back, is just how much our field has evolved and how important it is to stay current and understand the bigger picture. I think starting at the Division II level in undergrad, there wasn't as much of a media presence. It was really the nuts and bolts of the website, stats and covering games. Social media didn't even exist at the time. I think adapting and learning as much as you can and understanding the full scope of what this profession entails is so important. Being apart of a small staff, I was kind of thrown into the deep end and given a lot of experience at Lock Haven, which was great, but I was kind of blind to the media-relating and strategy aspect of our field. Fast forward to my time at Michigan, being able to help develop and run our internship program and being able to work with various staff and strategize with other departments and seeing how a full athletic department works together is really important. I really value having that experience outside of my sport responsibilities. Understanding the full scope is something you just learn over time but if I had known more about what our entire field entailed earlier, I might have been a bit more comfortable in that space earlier in my career.

 

Q: How do you find a work life balance?

I think everybody is different in how they find that. I am definitely someone who doesn't like to take work home. I would rather stay at the office and crank out work until 7:00 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. so that when I go home, I can try to shut off as much as possible and spend time with my family and do other things that enjoy outside of work. Some people love to shut it off at 5 p.m. and go home and are fine watching some TV, grabbing dinner and working on their laptop, answering emails, playing around with some new graphic designs or whatever it may be at night but that's just not how I operate. I think finding what works best for you is important. Depending on what your situation is, whether you have family, a partner or spouse, whatever it may be, trying to find time and ways to mesh your schedules and interests is also important. (My husband) Eric had to kind of adapt to my crazy schedule. He's just super supportive of that. Everybody has a very different rhythm and flow throughout the year depending on when they're in season and out of season. It’s tough to take vacation in the middle of the year and we typically do that more in the summer, but if you can get a day here or a day there to just shut down and have a mental health day for yourself, it's really important. Everybody is very different in how they decompress.

 

Q: What is the best way to set yourself apart?

It's the intangibles that you have as a person and a professional. I've learned so much in the last seven years about how you can teach somebody skills that they may or may not have, but if you have the right intangibles, your work ethic, team player, the right attitude, quick learner, those things are way more important than being able to do the Xs and Os. Whether you know how to use Photoshop or not or whether you can stat a game -- those are all things that can be taught. When we hire interns, I would rather hire an intern that is dedicated, passionate and wants to get into the industry over someone who just has 10 years of nuts and bolts experience but lacks some of those quality traits we’re looking for. If you can find a way to combine your skills with things that set you apart in those intangible areas, that’s really what it's going to come down to.

 

Q: What is the level of importance of getting master's degree in the sports field?

I think it's a hard question because it depends on what you want to do with your career path -- and you don't always know the answer to that when you're an undergrad and deciding if you need or want to go to grad school. I would say getting a master's degree just to get a piece of paper isn't really necessary and might not pay off in the long run. Grad school is also a financial decision. It's something that might be affordable right after undergrad, it may be something that you go back down the road and when you can afford it on a part-time basis.

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A lot of times you'll see "master's preferred" on a job description but I'm obviously proof that it's preferred, not required. I think when you do decide to pursue a master's degree, you want to be really thoughtful about what you get your degree in. If you were a sport management major undergrad, is getting a sport management master's going to help you achieve your goals or would getting a higher education degree or an MBA something that may open more doors and give you more options down the road? I am 30 and I still don't know what exactly my future career path may look like. If you have the opportunity and can afford to get one, if you can find a graduate assistantship position that makes sense for you where you can get job experience and get a master's degree, 100% take advantage of it. There is certainly no down side to furthering your education. In my opinion, it does get harder to go back the older you get. If you have the opportunity and can afford it, I think it's a great option but I don't think it's going to derail anyone's career unless you really want to work your way up (i.e. Athletic Director).

 

Q: Is experience or a degree more important?

I would say experience until you get to a certain level position where it's a requirement. You want to look at where you want to be and what's required. Sometimes it's hard to know where you want to be in five, ten or twenty years down the road. In most cases experiences would trump, but you're going to get to a point where that master's or PhD are a must. There are some places that will hire you while you're starting to pursue that degree and may help you pay for it.

 

Q: When your sports are in season, what is something you do to keep you on schedule?

I am a big hand-written to-do list person. I make them almost daily. I like them to be very clean so I'll come in in the morning, make my to-do list and at the end of the day, reevaluate. I'll add things to it, cross things off and then when I come in the next morning, I'll try to make a clean one of things I need to do. I rely a lot on my Google calendar, not only for meetings and places that I have to be, but maybe blocking off time to make sure I get X done so that I can't schedule a meeting or someone can't drop in at that time. I'm very to-do list and check-list oriented and if it's not on there, I'm likely going to forget. Not because I don't care but because that's just how my brain operates.