Freelance Event Coordinator & Venue Manager, 2017-2019

Freelance Event Coordinator, specializing in large-scale wine events in the Walla Walla Valley and beyond. Recent events include: Hospice du Rhône - April 2018, Paso Robles, CA (Paso Robles Event Center), Auction of Washington Wines Private Barrel Auction - August 2017, Woodinville, WA (Novelty Hill-Januik Winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery), Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance Harvest Party - August 2017, Walla Walla, WA (Tranche Estates), Celebrate Walla Walla Valley Wine – The World of Syrah - June 2017, Walla Walla, WA (Cadaretta Glass House, Canoe Ridge Winery, Three Rivers Winery, Whitman College, Dragon’s Gate Brewery), Walla Walla Reveal wine auction - April 2017, Walla Walla, WA (Dusted Valley Vineyards, The Gesa Power House, Corliss Estates, Whitehouse Crawford Restaurant, Reininger Winery)

Red Star Barn Event Manager - Responsible for marketing and promotion of the venue for weddings, winemaker dinners, corporate retreats, concerts, and other events. Created and maintain website, and all social media accounts. Responsible for event sales, and communicating with clients from booking to event date. Coordinate with local vendors, non-profit organizations, wineries, and local businesses to host events and ensure all logistics are in place for smooth operation of venue for event hosts. Organizations with whom we collaborate include the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, Nelson Irrigation, the Port of Walla Walla, and Alaska Airlines.

Coordinator of Campus Events & Conferences, Whitman College, 2012-2017

Planned and executed major events for The Office of the President, coordinating all event logistics for events both on and off campus; overseeing event marketing and publicity, speaker selection and management, venue selection, catering orders, event flow and time management, budget, staffing, signage, registration coordination, AV testing and technical needs, coordinating with internal departments and external vendors, hiring and training of event staff, and providing post-event follow-up and reporting. Responsible for 60+ events a year, including Trustee retreats, Commencement, the Whitman College Undergraduate Conference (presentations and poster sessions), faculty seminars, guest speaking engagements, and numerous social events at the President’s private residence. Liaised with college constituencies - Admissions, Alumni Relations, Development, Communications, Governing Board members, facilities, and catering services - to meet deadlines and deliver event metrics that reflected the professionalism and ethos of the college and its President. Provided consistency and reliability, working independently and as a part of the larger institutional team; took on responsibilities that helped the team reach the goals of The Office of the President and Whitman College as an academic/consumer-facing brand.

Events Coordinator, Whitman College (August 2012 – April 2017)

As the Events Coordinator for The Office of the President, I collaborated with my colleagues in the Provost’s Office, Admissions, Alumni Relations, Development, Communications, Athletics, The Office of Fellowships and Grants, Residence Life & Housing, and students and faculty, to coordinate on-campus events The Whitman Undergraduate Conference, Alumni Reunion Weekend, 50th Reunion Weekend, Alumni Board Events, Summer College, Family Weekend, Opening Weekend, Spring Visitor’s Day, Fall Visitor’s Day, Admitted Students Day, The Whitman College Summer Read Program, Baccalaureate Ceremony, Convocation Ceremony, Commencement Ceremony, High School Counsellors Dinners, Parents Leadership Group Receptions, Women In Leadership, Scholarship Socials, Mentorship Dinners, Global Entrepreneurship Week Events, Communications Department Branding Sessions, Dance Events, Sports Dinners, and Faculty and Staff Socials.

On behalf of the Office of the President, I hosted the following Visiting Lecturers & VIP Guests:

• Vernā Myers, Cultural Innovator & Activist

• Connie Rice, Civil Rights Activist & Lawyer, Co-Founder & Co-Director of the Advancement Project

• Edwidge Danticat, Haitian-American novelist and short story writer

• Kathleen Woodward, Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington

• Shakti Butler, Educator, Filmmaker and Founder of World Trust

• Gustavo Arellano, Publisher & Editor, OC Weekly

• Sherman Alexie, Poet, Writer, and Filmmaker

• Immaculée Ilibagiza, Rwandan author and motivational speaker 

• Hedrick Smith, Author, Reporter and Editor for The New York Times, Producer Correspondent for Frontline on PBS

• Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, Physician, Scientist, and Author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction)

• Kenji Yoshino, Legal Scholar and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law

• Diane Nash, iconic Civil Rights Activist

• Wade Davis, Anthropologist, Ethnobotanist, Author, Photographer, and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society 

• Danielle Ofri, Essayist, Editor, physician at Bellevue Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine

• Mark Strand – Poet, Essayist, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University

EVENT PLANNING & PROMOTION \\ FILM FESTIVALS

Coordinator,  UCLA Festival of New Creative Work 

In 2010 and 2011, I organized the UCLA Festival of New Creative Work  which showcases and screens work by emerging artists at the the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and honors the entertainment industry's brightest talent.

The festival showcases student work in film, video, animation, producing, screenwriting and theater, including work from the Cinema & Media Studies and Moving Image Archive Studies programs; more than 100 student films; and presentations of screenplays and producer-developed projects. Events include the opening night of the festival, two separate days of student screenings, Design Showcase West, the Screenwriters Showcase, Producers Marketplace, Animation Prom and the closing night Directors Spotlight. Honorees are chosen by students voting within their particular discipline as well as by industry professionals. 

The festival takes place over seven days and nights, at various locations across Los Angeles, including the Writers Guild Theater, the Directors Guild of America Theater, the James Bridges Theater at UCLA, and at the Billy Wilder Theater at the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Coordinator, The Barbie Film Festival  

In 2011 I organized The Barbie Film Festival, seeking submissions from UCLA undergraduate and graduate students who were invited to write, shoot and edit two-minute short films, using only the inexpensive Barbie Video Girl toy doll camera.

We received over three dozen imaginative and technologically innovative submissions, and I worked closely with executives from Mattel to organize every detail of the festival, bring the concept to fruition, and to promote and screen the films at a very popular and exceptionally unique industry event.