Originally from Raleigh, NC, I moved to the North Carolina coast in 2005 to pursue an Aquaculture Technology degree after years of retail management. Once finished, I became an Aquarist — the person who takes care of the animals — at Ripley’s Aquarium in Myrtle Beach. While I did spend many days SCUBA diving, wrangling sharks, transporting animals across the country, and dodging jellyfish stings, there was an equal amount of time spent on planning and building new exhibits, animal food inventory and accounting, and water chemistry. Unfortunately, animals, especially aquatic ones, can’t communicate how they feel or when they’re hungry, so you work a wild schedule — including 3am alarm calls! Currently, I’m employed at Laudisi Enterprises as the Project Manager of the Marketing Department. I first found my way into Laudisi as the Shipping Manager and immediately connected with the company culture. Overseeing the construction of our Humidor and executing the reset of our entire warehouse — I soon landed an Operations Coordinator position reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer. After accomplishing my goals of readying the company for an impending FDA inspection, I moved on to the marketing department as the Marketing Coordinator. In this role, I’ve helped build and operate the marketing department in myriad ways — including managing the Social Media channels for our three companies. I now occupy the role of Project Manager in the Marketing Department and oversee a lot of the fun and exciting day to day aspects of operating our team, from campaign planning, assigning, creation, and rollout, to working B2B for promotional product creation, all printing duties for the company, and capturing our email and ad analytics. I believe that I am ready for my next challenge and have begun looking for a long term leadership position, or a position that could lead to a leadership opportunity.