The Facts & The Feels

As a young girl, I played office instead of house.

And if you were growing up in the ‘80s, that was a little weird. But, I proudly arranged my office setting in the family sunporch. With that abundance of light streaming in, I made important imaginary phone calls, read books, wrote memos, pushed clickety-clack buttons on a broken calculator and even pretended my name was Susan Pennington, because that just sounded ‘businessy’. I practiced Susan’s signature on my memos, again and again.

Thankfully, I ditched the alias (no offense to any Susans) and leaned into my whole self. I love my work and always have…

Shebe Values:

How I show up in the world and serve you as leaders, changemakers and marketing professionals shapes my point of view and all work in the consultancy. This includes my approach, why it matters to me past just getting the job done, how I choose and assemble team partners for client work and my belief that marketing is a critical driver in setting organization identity and culture.

  • Authenticity over optics

    Trust comes from being what we claim. We will align our actions with our values.

  • Comfort in complexity

    In a world full of polarizing and simplifying, we get comfortable with complexity and seek to understand.

  • Magnify the moxie

    We have a force of character, the courage to change and the audacity to take calculated risks.

  • Equity over equality

    We will create change by ensuring fair and equitable access to opportunities and outcomes.

  • Align with intuition

    Less shouting and more listening means, yes, we will look at the data, but we also go inward and trust in our inner knowing.

The Facts:

Within the consultancy, I provide marketing strategy, execution and assessment across digital marketing, content marketing and branding for a wide range of clients .

In Higher Ed:

Because the consultancy often serves organizations in times of change, I’ve held interim senior leadership positions such as associate vice president of marketing at Northern Virginia Community College, the second largest community college in the United States, and associate vice president of marketing at St. Bonaventure University, a private, Catholic university.

I’ve also developed marketing assessments, strategies and initiatives for North Carolina State, Vanderbilt University Law School, University of Rochester’s Graduate School of Business, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Fontbonne University and St. Vincent College.

In Corporations:

I’ve worked in tourism, food and beverage, sporting goods, kitchen cutlery, automotive and healthcare on both the agency and client sides. My focus for brands such as Cutco Cutlery, Zippo Manufacturing, Steaz Organic Iced Tea, Bruster’s Real Ice Cream and BlueCross BlueShield was building integrated, comprehensive marketing strategies.

As an Educator:

I’ve taught at the undergraduate and graduate level for over 15 years and was an early adopter of online teaching. I’ve held a range of faculty positions at St. Bonaventure University and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, teaching integrated marketing communications, branding, strategic marketing management, consumer behavior and digital & social media marketing. I currently serve as Professional in Residence in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University.

I’ve also led marketing and branding training for corporations and institutions, both stateside and abroad. I’ve served as an instructor and assistant director for St. Bonaventure’s Francis E. Kelley Oxford study abroad program in England. And I am certified in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I’ve taught English as a foreign language and cross-cultural business communication in Costa Rica for international brands such as Hewlett Packard, Intel and Equifax.

As a Student:

I hold an M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Bonaventure University and a B.S. in Communications from Houghton College. In continuing education, I am currently pursuing completion of the International Service of Evaluation of the Spanish Language (SIELE) exam to certify my Spanish language proficiency.

The Feels:

I’m a grateful and short-on-sleep (coffee, please) mama of two little dudes. But, I never tire of loving them. They are what I know to be true in this world. Like most women and moms, I feel the weight of cultural and gender expectations which attempt to dictate how I ‘should’ act, do, be, but I always return to myself and my inner knowing. I think we don’t listen to ourselves enough, and the ability to do so is a superpower.

When I’m not playing in our latest Nerf gun battle or picking up toys for the 1,000th time, I like to study Spanish, workout and plan our next trip to my heart’s country, Costa Rica.

“A world full of empowered women isn’t one where men are marginalized. It’s a world where everyone thrives.”

— Prunima Mane, global expert on gender