Nike

- Design operational success definitions and capability mapping - empower global operation teams to deliver effective, efficient and high-quality service and engagement across all social media platforms in alignment with brand objectives and marketing goals
- Social Media Service Experience Design and Strategy - creating innovative engagement strategies to increase brand affinity and member recruitment and retention
- Global Service Experience Strategy for All Nike Apps - ensuring forward thinking and industry leading support for Nike's apps
- Design Innovative and Impactful Consumer Experiences Across Multiple Platforms
- Increase Revenue and Member Conversion within Nike's Social Communities
-Lead Teams in Four Geographies, to Bring Relevant and Culturally-Right Experiences to Life

Global Director of Social Engagement & Service Operations

- Social Media Service Experience Design and Strategy for Global Social Platforms
- Operational Best Practice and Management of Global Social Media Teams
- Lead Innovation Efforts in Social Space to Enhance Consumer to Brand Affinity and Relationship
- Design Innovative and Impactful Consumer Experiences Across Multiple Platforms
- Increase Revenue and Member Conversion within Nike's Social Communities
-Lead Teams in Four Geographies, to Bring Relevant and Culturally-Right Experiences to Life

Global Director of Social Support and Expert Services

- Act as key point of contact for all Global Digital Commerce (GDC) teams with a focus on Running, Women's Training and Expert Services and to understand consumer experiences and impacts.
- Act as a key point of contact for all Brand Category and Corporate Responsibility partners where dedicated support is offered.
- Monitor support CS KPIs to identify trends requiring attention; elevate issues to responsible functional teams for issue resolution.
-Coordinate and lead key cross functional team efforts for key product or category initiative launches
- Identify and develop relationships with resources and content owners across organization.
- Attend and participate in cross functional meetings representing CS and Voice of the Consumer 
- Responsible for creating and developing enhanced service strategy and implementation plan.
- Responsible for proactively driving continuous process improvement.
- Develop and manage detailed CS project plans and related change management requests through implementation with Global CS Center of Excellence Leadership and Operations team.

Senior Global Category Partnership Manager:  Nike Women, Nike Running and Expert Services

-Oversee the Women's Training, Running, Nike+, Skateboarding, FBAT (Football, Baseball & Athletic Training) social media support businesses
-Enable consumer interaction with the Brand via Facebook, Twitter, various Apps, Instagram and Amazon.com
-Design global workflows to enable social support and engagement across global social platforms and accounts
-Innovate new Listen and Respond social strategies to enable athletes and build Brand affinity
-Refine our social "voice"
-Define social excellence and ensure adherance to KPI goals
-Coach the social media support team

Social Media Area Manager

Establish and maintain the relationship between consumers and the brand by providing a timely and relevant response in the social space. 

Lead a team of 8 to provide coverage to many social networking channels. 

Maintain a pulse on conversation about the brand.

Respond as Nike Running on various social channels.

Nike Running Social Media Lead

Manage and support nikerunning.com, a global marketing website. 

Concept and produce content ranging from video to photography. 

Planning, organizing, producing digital marketing campaigns with emphasis on community engagement and brand representation.

Associate Digital Producer Running

-Aided in project management
-composed public relations stories for the Nike intranet
-assisted in a complete analysis of the Nikemedia.com website
-aided in creation of a Nike social media policy
-contributed to marketing campaigns
-participated in a variety of detail-oriented tasks

Corporate Communications Intern

Chief

I’ve just joined Chief, a private network built to drive more women into positions of power and keep them there. Chief is the only organization specifically designed for the most powerful women executives to strengthen their leadership, magnify their influence, and pave the way to bring others with them.

CHIEF member

My house

Simultaneously performed my day job as a Director at Nike and delivered top-notch results, while also caring for a baby and toddler during a global pandemic.

- Performed regular risk assessments for health and safety
- Provided emotional guidance and wellbeing
- Administration of daily calendar updates and meeting coordinator
- Supplies sourcing - specializing in Covid Rapid Tests
- Navigated extreme ambiguity
- Prioritization of many, many tasks
- Budget management 
- Event planning of daily activities and team enrichment
- Nutrition and meal planning
- Education curriculum creator
- Facilities and daily cleanliness checks
- Catering
- Workplace design based on employee need
- Development of physical activity programming
- Instituted strategies for morale and mental health
- Transportation provider

Working Pandemic Parent

Oregon State University

Compile Statistics, provide accurate information to the media, maintain osubeavers.com with up-to-date information, interview athletes and coaches, provide office assistence and compose press releases concerning all Oregon State University athletic teams.

Athletics Communication Intern

Oregon Gymnastics Academy

Faciliated the instruction of fundamental gymnastics to children of all ages. Supervised a staff of 13 coaches for a gymnastics summer camp, maintaining organization and safety.

Coach and Staff Supervisor

The Daily Barometer

I covered a variety of OSU athletic events writing previews, recaps, reviews, columns and profile pieces (76 articles total).

Sports reporter

KBVR radio

Narrated play-by-play analysis of Oregon State gymnastics meets, broadcasted on KBVR radio.

Sports Broadcaster

A competitive gymnast for 16 years, there is very little that scares me. I have centered my career around creating new methodologies and platforms to build relationships between brand and consumer, coach and athlete. With over 10 years of experience in the sport industry, I have set a goal to help serve athletes with the tools, product and inspiration to make them better. I have coached teams of athletes and career professionals of up to 100 people strong, in countries all over the world. When your team is motivated, healthy and enabled with the tools they need to succeed, you win.

We don't do 'em - Meetings on Fridays. 

Unless the world is on fire and we need to huddle on the Zoom with cameras off to hash out a plan in real time, we just say no.

It's not hard to say no. You just offer times on M-Th that work instead.  

We also don't do meetings between 11:30 - 1pm because my team likes to workout at lunch, and you know, eat. 

That leaves a whopping ~22ish hours to accomplish stuff through live conversation. If your team can't get done what needs to be done through 22ish hours of conversation per week, then you need to look at workload and ways of working - because something is off. 

Fridays are for heads down work - documentation, email, project planning, deck building, big thinking and development work. I don't care if it's done from the couch in your pajamas because a full face of makeup and a button up never helped me write an email. 

It lets us all head into our weekend with clear inboxes and minds.

The brilliant part of this is that we didn't let the "buts" and "what if's" get in the way of doing it. We just do it and figure it out - it is really that simple. 

Samantha Unrau

In my entire career, I have never once left town on a vacation or long weekend without my work lap top.

I even brought it on my honeymoon back in 2014 🤦‍♀️  (I know, I know. but in my defense, I've only had a team of direct reports to share the load for the past three years and I put enormous and unrealistic pressure on myself when it was just me.)

The occurrence in which I’ve had to check in on vacation because something was burning down is very rare. But as anyone who works in social will tell you, social never sleeps and there was always a weird sort of comfort in having my lap top with me “just in case.”

But this past weekend my husband and I ditched the kids at their grandparents and headed to the coast for our first nights away from them since pre-Covid.

And I left that lap top at home.

The evolution from workaholic to balance can sometimes feel like a revolution. Breaking habits and deeply-held norms about what work and life should look like is hard - even if I know better now.

But I am inching towards that better version of my reality - the one I want to emulate for my kids and my team. 

One intentional step at a time.

Nothing prepares you for the moment that your last baby, who is not so much a baby anymore, sings her lullaby back to you. ❤️🥹😍😭

This is what that invitation to happy hour is competing against. 

And for me, there is no competition.

3:30. 

That's what time my daughter's gymnastics class is. There was another class at 4:30, but it's understandably deeply waitlisted. 

I am posting this from the parent viewing area using my phone as a hotspot while I answer emails and update some slides. 

She loves gymnastics and I want her to be able to do things she loves. 

Getting her to this class requires a rotating weekly schedule between me, my mom, and my husband to get her there at 3:30 on Wednesdays without missing too much work - I actually questioned if it was worth the hassle of trying to figure it out. 

Flexibility in where and how I get my work done doesn't just afford me  sanity when a kid gets sick, it also allows me to provide her with the enrichment that every kid should get to experience. As a parent, flexibility helps me be able to say "yes."

And every third week, I get to watch her do something she loves. 


 

Happy International Women’s Day. 

If this is your first time this year thinking about, and talking about the state of the world for women, now is your chance to do better and start…and never stop. 

We will stop thinking about it, and talking about it, when there are nine female justices and no one bats an eye. 

… when all female boards are unremarkable. 

… when women aren’t afraid to tell their bosses they are pregnant. 

… when women aren’t required to return to work still bleeding after childbirth. 

… when people stop trying to strip away their bodily autonomy. 

… when the rates of postpartum anxiety and depression drop dramatically as women get the support they need. 

… when the mental load becomes ungendered. 

… when women are paid their worth. 

… when women can be direct and concise without being called a b1tch. 

… when women stop dying in childbirth because of lack of care and racial discrimination in medicine. 

… when women are finally offered pain relief for invasive medical procedures like IUD insertions. 

We will stop talking about it when there is nothing left to talk about.

I spent the first 20 weeks of both of my pregnancies puking and dry heaving every minute that I was awake. 

I would wake up, puke in the shower, and then spend the rest of the day gagging at literally every smell or bite of food. The amount of time that I spent in a bathroom stall at work trying to convince other bathroom goers that I wasn't contagious with something was gross. 

And it still wasn't as bad as it could have been. I could keep down fluids, potstickers and waffles with the anti nausea meds and I didn't get to the point of needing IV therapy. 

But it was still like working with the stomach flu for five months straight. 

And yet, women go through this type of pregnancy-induced illness all the time, and we are expected to go on with our days as if nothing was amiss. Because pregnancy is "natural" and pregnancy nausea is "normal."

When really, the narrative should be that pregnancy is "a major medical condition" and pregnancy nausea is "challenging at best and debilitating at worst."

We don't do women justice when it comes to supporting them in the early weeks and months of pregnancy. 

There are two things that can help women in this situation: 

1. Create a working environment and relationship with mothers that gives them the confidence to share their pregnancies early with trusted people who can support them through the early months without fear of career ramifications. 

2. Create supportive structures and policies that provide extra leave, flexibility and accommodations for these women. 

It's either that, or we all agree to carry around barf bags and just let it hurl in meetings until people start getting the point. 

It's that time again: POST YO JOBS

Calling all recruiters and hiring managers - let's connect some awesome applicants (you know there are a LOT of them right now) with future opportunities. Link your jobs in the comments below. 

And job seekers - shoot your shot in the comments as well. There's 80k people in this network, someone might just be looking for YOU. 

Help me do some good with this little following 😊 

International Women’s Day is coming.

Before they post that obligatory brand spot about women empowerment, we should encourage brands to check the state of their own house.

It’s 2023 and we see right through brands that try to hide mud puddles with flowers.

We should celebrate women by…

Reconciling gender pay gaps at your company and instituting pay transparency.

Questioning why your company has never had a female CEO.

Instituting maternity and parental leave policies.

Re-upping on unconscious bias training for the whole enterprise.

Supporting women in leadership.

Analyzing the unpaid labor within your own org and either making it paid or spreading it out equally amongst everyone.

Educating yourself on the impacts of menopause and the menstrual cycle on working woman and leverage that knowledge as you craft medical benefits, flexibility and leave policies.

Investing in child and dependent care solutions for your employees.

And more.

Forget the flowers. Let's do the work.

I tell my girls that they are always entitled to defend themselves.

For so long, there was an expectation in the workplace that women  should meekly accept unwarranted critique and feedback, insinuations about themselves and stereotyping. We were told that successful women were “the bigger person,” “rose above” and “didn’t make waves.”

Well, I’m raising my girls to make tsunamis.

They will be taught to approach the behavior of others with discernment. To use and accept what’s valuable, and throw the rest to the curb.

When someone makes an incorrect assumption about you, you are allowed to tell them they are wrong. That doesn’t make you combative.

When someone tries to make you feel small, you are allowed to be big.

When someone questions your integrity, you are allowed to assertively set them straight.

You are allowed to digest the critique and assessment of others, and find it lacking.

As women, you are allowed to do the things that men do every day without thinking twice.

You are allowed, and encouraged, to stand up for yourself.

And I hope you find the bravery to do so.

Hi friends. 

I believe in this LinkedIn thing I'm doing - I am still not totally sure what it is, or what it will be, but I think it's powerful and has the opportunity to do some real good. I don't plan on stopping.  

And I am not naive to the realities of social media. I do social for a living. I know that posting is like opening the flood gates to the world's words, thoughts and opinions. But knowing that's the nature of social, and having to experience the full tidal wave of it are two different things. 

This past week has been particularly heavy with, um, feedback. I've had my words picked apart and misconstrued. I've been barraged for not being able to speak for everyone and everything in one breath. I've been told that I am a neglectful mother and wife. I was publicly shamed by someone who claimed that I was doing "POST YO JOBS" posts to garner superficial engagement and views. It's been a lot.

And while I understand that I cannot please everyone and social is a mixed bag, it's still heavy to have to constantly weed through that sentiment and identify what's true and valuable. I can and do take constructive feedback, but the personal attacks are like a billion paper cuts.

I am not an influencer in the traditional sense of the word. I make no money off this platform. What you see in my posts are the virtual representation of my internal monologue and my metaphorical screaming into the void. I do this in my spare time, between taking care of my family and doing my big, often stressful, job. I don't have a "team" behind this profile, this passion project. It's just me doing the best I can. 

And so, the point of this, I guess, is to ask for grace. I may not always use the right words, or the words you would have chose, or cover all the points or topics - because I can't set the expectation for myself that I can be everything to everyone. My posts are an invitation for you to engage - to add to the conversation and bring up points I may have missed. I encourage you to participate and help drive the conversation along - this has to be a team effort. 

I'm going to take a little breather from posting for the rest of the week to let the notifications die down. 

❤️ Sami

Cooking dinner while doing listen-only meetings (and sometimes quick touch bases) has saved my sanity as a working mom. 

It sure kicks the after-work chaos down a few notches. 

This is flexibility. This is sustainable working and momming, for me. 

My work day starts at 5:45am and ends around 8:30pm. 

It's most intense around dinnertime - that's when the work becomes more about managing chaos. 

I work weekends, too. And holidays. And while on vacation. So does my husband. 

But, I only get paid for the work I do between 8am - 4:30pm. 

Raising tiny humans is WORK. It's work that starts the moment you wake up, and ends long after they've gone to sleep. 

Happy work (most the time). Meaningful work (all the time). But still, work. 

I weaned both of my babies before I returned to work. 

I didn't love breastfeeding (honestly, I actually kind of hated it), but I did try and maintain pumping for my girls for months after they were born and fed them a combination of breastmilk and formula. 

But there was absolutely no way I was going to continue doing it after returning to work. We did have a room designated for pumping in my building, with a chair and an outlet (that's about it), but it would have meant keeping my milk in the communal fridge and washing the parts in the communal sink in the break room. And while it was a step up from friends who told me they had to pump in a stall in the bathroom, ultimately, it was an added stress I just couldn't take on. 

We are moving to one of the new renovated buildings on campus soon, and as they were walking us through the new amenities, my heart skipped a beat as they described the Mother's Rooms that would be available - furnished, decorated, private, and with a fridge and sink. A comfortable and functional space dedicated to supporting mothers in their efforts to feed their children. A space where you could work while you pumped as if pumping were an expected and natural part of your work day. 

It gave me a little tug of pride. That's how you support moms - by taking these steps to normalize parts of motherhood and parenthood - weaving them into the fabric of our workdays. 

(As a reminder, HOWEVER you choose to feed your babies, you are a GOOD mom. The important thing is that you feel supported in that choice.)

I don't think I would survive another pregnancy - and even if I did, I'm certain that it would be something I would spend the rest of my life healing from. 

And yet, I don't think a doctor would ever diagnose the possibility of pregnancy as life-threatening for me by current medical standards. 

Physically, pregnancy was so hard on my body - the sickness, the pain, the complications, the preeclampsia, the surgeries, the medications, the therapy, the thyroiditis - pregnancy was the greatest physical trauma I've ever lived through. 

Financially, had I not been double covered, it would have hurt us dearly. 

Mentally and emotionally, I still carry those scars, the PTSD. 

I know for a fact that another pregnancy would impact my ability to work and care for the children I already have. 

As we continue to hear about the chipping away of our bodily autonomy by legislators and politicians who will likely not personally face the ramifications of their own actions, I am filled with such rage. 

The latest banning of abortion medications in Wyoming is just the latest in the assault on women's lives and autonomy. 

Everything we do in this life is tied to the body in which we live. When we lose the ability to dictate how our bodies are used, we lose dominion over our lives. And that impacts everything from our ability to manage our health to our ability to work and provide for ourselves and others. 

When doctors are hand tied, women and people with uteruses will die. But that's not all that dies with this restriction on women's healthcare - dreams, career plans, earning potential, and the independence of millions of women are slowly dying too. 

You all absolutely astound me. ❤️ 

I haven’t even met the majority of you, and yet, you rose to meet me and held space when I needed it. 

The messages of positivity, love and grace were SO GOOD for my soul and a reminder that the positive absolutely outshines everything else. We are doing good things here and it’s hard to stay away when the light that shines through this community is so strong. 

So, I’m back. I’ve got my power suit (overalls) on and I’m ready to get back to work. 

🚀

Moms (and parents in general) are asking for meeting free zones. 

That was a consistent theme in my conversations with women about how they feel supported in the workplace. 

The consistent callout is that there are high-touch, family-obligation-packed time periods that are consistent day to day that are filled with stressors for moms and parents. These are often 6:30am-9:00am and 4:30 -7:00pm. 

Post-Covid, pre-school and after-school childcare were left decimated and there are few options for parents to leverage. And the fact that school times and work schedules don't align has always been an issue for dual-working parent households. 

Trying to accommodate meetings during this time can mean that we can't show up in the way that we need to for either our families or our jobs. Allowing teams to put blocks on calendars during these times can be a way to support the needs of both environments and bake resistance to burnout into our ways of working. 

This can be tricky for teams who work globally, or across time zones, but it's not impossible to implement some form of protected zones that moves the needle in the right direction. 

Just try it. 

Let me tell you what kind of “parent” I am.

I am a working mom raising two girls who will know their worth, the meaning of work, and what they deserve.

They will grow up understanding the power of independence and the value of supportive partnership.

I am a parent of kids who will know they are not the center of the world, but can be confident in knowing that they have two parents who would move the world for them.

I will not allow my dedication to my children to be questioned for choosing to work.

No one. Absolutely no one, gets to judge your validity as a good parent for putting your child in daycare.

For many, working is not a choice – and therefore, childcare is a necessity.

And for others, working makes them feel whole – and so childcare is worth it.

We will not allow others to guilt us into thinking that we are any less of a parent for giving our children socialization, education, stimulation, and a network of adults who are invested in their development.

We will not allow ourselves to be belittled for utilizing what human society has leveraged since the dawn of time – the village – to help raise and care for our young.

We will not allow society to shirk its responsibility that it has for every new generation of societal contributors by claiming that the responsibility of supporting caregivers and our children, our future, belongs to the parent, and the parent alone.

You can work and be a good parent. And do not allow anyone to tell you otherwise.

You want to know what's insane?

Planning to wake up at 5am with your husband so you can sit side by side by side in the dark kitchen, both with lap tops, because childcare registration for the summer goes live at 6am and you have to register by week, so you've divided the list of weeks you need between you and just hope you're fast enough.

The. System. Is. Broken. And I am literally losing sleep over this. 

Childcare is not valued as a necessary function of society. 

That is wildly clear as parents struggle to find adequate care, sit on years-long waitlists, fight for parental leave after family additions and births, and navigate an education system that is designed as if it's still the standard to have one parent at home. 

Parents sacrifice sick time and PTO to care for sick kids and then work while sick themselves because we've set up support systems to only support the individual - not the individual as a caregiver. 

Men are, more and more, feeling the pressure that women have always felt as they battle working environments that don't set caregivers as the default. 

"Lead author Professor Leah Ruppanner said fathers who share childcare “are suffering in the same way women have for ever and ever: discrimination at work”.

“The pandemic provided many men the opportunity to step into caregiving roles ... and they didn’t have to beg or ask for it, but they feel their caregiving status boxes them out of opportunities for career progression.” she said."

We must value caregiving on the same level as individualism and profit. 

I read a book throughout the day. 

And not like a “How to be a better manager,” “Improve your communication in 17 simple steps,” or “Be a fearless female leader.”

Nah. Nothing even remotely educational. 

These are “Land of faeries with magic swords and finding the love you were fated to have” kind of books. 

I started doing this about three months ago. A few times throughout the day, if I have a meeting end early or I clear my inbox for moment, I’ll grab my Kindle and read a couple pages. Five to ten minutes at a time, I maybe spend 20-30 minutes throughout the day reading. 

I used to fill that time pounding out every bit of work I could. And if we are being honest, 20-30 minutes of fragmented work isn’t all that much, and it wasn’t really helping my productivity. The constant brain churning was killing my creativity and stamina. 

My mythical and fantastical brain breaks are like little breaths of fresh air that allow my mind to wander and rest in my imagination. 

I’ve finished 6 books so far this year. 

I’m open to recommendations, if you have any good ones.

Taplio

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