What do you love about your business?
As the Marketing Director, I am in charge of our website content and blog, social media management, public relations, and event planning. I love that in my position I can be creative, meet interesting and influential people, all while learning and staying current on industry and local news.
What do you get out of being a member of YPN?
I enjoy the opportunity to meet other young, like-minded professionals who are at about the same place in their careers. Everyone in YPN is so focused and career oriented, it’s refreshing to be able to surround myself with that kind of enthusiasm for success.
If I weren’t at work right now, I’d be….
Ideally on a vacation, somewhere tropical like Costa Rica. Realistically, I would still be outside enjoying the sunshine!
My favorite time of day is…
Morning
because…
You never know what exciting adventure the day holds.
If you could take anyone in town out for a cup of coffee, who would it be and why?
Mayor Hillary Schieve. I would like the opportunity to explain to her the importance of having the Generator Two in Reno. This is a unique and necessary space for people to meet, create, live and work together and share resources.
To me, networking is about….
Helping people. Making those connections to be able to introduce people who might not have met before.
If you could fix one problem in our community, what would it be and how would you fix it?
One problem I believe the Reno community has is image. Reno, especially downtown and midtown areas have come a long way. But even with all the improvements, to outsiders, there still appears to be parts that are run down from neglect or too sterile from recent development. If you ask people what they think of Reno, you tend to hear association with gambling or a want to be Las Vegas. We draw a lot of tourists in from major events like Hot August Nights and Burning Man but while they bring in revenue, they don’t do much to form an image. Artown has been quite popular and appears to be widely accepted by our community, but why only a month? Events like Artown should not be an event, it should be our everyday community. Art inspires learning, it adds culture, it adds beauty and it can positively change our image. With the explosive popularity of Burning Man (a festival with strong ties to the art world) so close to Reno, can you imagine the amount of artists willing to beautify our community and image for that reason alone? Reno needs a positive image, away from gambling. A positive image and a community full of beautiful art of all kinds will not only draw tourism but increase community involvement and pride. So where do we start? We need to start by encouraging artists by allowing them places to display. Many artists create more out of passion than profit so allowing them places to display art encourages them to create it. And in return, our community becomes more beautiful at a very low cost. A community based on art is a positive image and additionally one that will draw people in from surrounding areas and possibly from afar.
If you were a wild animal, I would be…
An otter
because…
They are so gregarious and fun, they have a real enthusiasm for life.
What was the last gift you gave someone?
I gave my sister a Henna tattoo kit
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
A friend and I went to an Asian supermarket to buy bags of fortune cookies. The open sign was still on the door so we didn’t realize it was closed. Because of the language barrier, the owners thought we were robbing them. It was just a funny situation.
