By: Carrie Kelley
Owner of CheekyKeen Design and Graduate Student at the University of Tennessee
Hello World! This is officially my first blog, written as a professional introduction to who I am and where I currently stand in my career. Currently, I am a third-semester, full-time Communication and Information graduate student enrolled in the Strategic and Digital Communications program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Prior to this program, I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Advertising and International Relations from Middle Tennessee State University in 2005.
Then after establishing my career in Advertising, I recognized my passion for design, so in 2015 I completed a certificate program in Multimedia Design that taught me the fundamentals of design, typography, videography, and interactive digital media.
These academic achievements and design skills guided my professional career to focus on the marketing industry for a number of notable organizations across the country. I started my career as an Advertising Account Executive for Freedom Communications selling print and digital advertising for eight daily and weekly newspapers in the Florida panhandle.
Three years later, I moved to Northern Virginia where I took a position with the Garden City Group as a Media Planner and Buyer. There I developed advertising campaigns for president-setting, international class action lawsuit settlements. This position gave me experience with MRI - Mediamark Research, Simmons, SRDS and other research tools to track demographics, geographics and media habits of the publics we targeted.
In 2015, I took a Senior Communication Fellow position in Hampton Virginia with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I lead a team of graphic designers and communication fellows to develop communication initiatives for DEVELOP, one of NASA’s Earth Science programs. We developed national recruitment strategies and marketing plans that leveraged social media, email marketing, volunteer ambassadors, and virtual webinar campaigns. Additionally, my team of designers and I worked to produce promotional collateral and annual reports that would be distributed on a global scale.
In 2017, I accepted a position with the College of William & Mary where I managed marketing campaigns for the twelve auxiliary departments of the University.
About the time that the Covid–19 pandemic shut down the country in early 2020, I chose to leave my office job and open my own branding and multimedia design business named CheekyKeen Design.
In addition to my academic and professional commitments, I am a dedicated mommy of three girls, one busy beagle, and three rascally ferrets that currently live in Brentwood, Tennessee. During my “off” time, I enjoy running, volunteering, crafting, and building furniture. My daughters and I love to kayak the rivers near our home and enjoy spending lots of time outdoors.
I understand the value of strategically developed and delivered information that is delivered to any target public. As a communications practitioner, it is vital for me to understand that different publics will consume and interpret information differently based on the verbiage, method, and media type used. I am currently learning to gain new insights on how the public might access information that I distribute so that better decisions can be made for the strategies that I develop for my clients.
After graduation from this program, my goal is to obtain a position as a communications director for an organization that adds value to society.
I plan to be picky about whom I work for. Fiscal success will always be important to support my family, however it’s equally important to me that I get to spend my valuable time with organizations that care about the community that supports them.
In five years, I hope to be with that same organization to establish consistency for my career and ten years from now, I hope to advance my position to that of a communications community leader and mentor for young professionals that work in marketing. Professional mentorship is an incredibly valuable driver for success, and I would like to share what I have learned throughout my career.
I’d love to hear from you! Is there a mentor that has provided value to you, or your career? What did they provide that changed your perception or enabled you to grow?
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