One step at a time.  The building blocks of a world class professional.

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is.  A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”  ~Wayne Gretsky.  Hi.  I’m Tami.  I hail from Montana and the Inland Northwest.  My travels have taken me from France’s Loire Valley, to Berlin, and a tiny town in Italy called Cagli.   But one of my favorite trips is exploring the beaches on the Oregon/Washington coast.  I’m a mid-level professional with experience in marketing and operations, and I’m currently working on expanding my skillset into the fields of development and diplomacy, public policy, and anti-money laundering.  I’m always looking for where the puck is going to be.   Welcome to my website!  This is my story:

Preparation

In a word, I’m passionate – about dreaming, learning, and growing. I’ve developed a breadth of experience by focusing my studies on business, intercultural and interpersonal communication, and language.  I have continued developing my knowledge base in each professional role I have achieved using my education and additional lessons learned on the job to benefit the organization in my next position.

 Patience

Chateau d’Angers

I knew I wanted to study abroad as soon as I met an influential French language teacher in high school.  But my immediate circumstances wouldn’t allow it.  Instead of forgetting that dream, I set it as a goal for myself.  Six years later, after careful planning and saving, I taxied in at Charles de Gaulle airport ready to meet my host family and dive into the experience I’d been waiting so long for.  Lessons learned outside of one’s own culture are invaluable, transformative, and transferrable.  I’ve drawn on that experience time and again in both my personal and professional life.  My experience in Angers, France and travels to Brussels, Salzburg, Vienna, London, Berlin, and Annecy deeply influenced my belief that international educational exchange can be a catalyst for real change in the world, on a person-to-person level.

Application

I’ve taken lessons learned from the classroom and applied them workplace.  From preparing and presenting a professional training workshop with classmates for a chapter of the Red Cross, to running a corporate wide project to change a complex, daily operation that was fundamental to the company’s immediate cash flow, I’ve demonstrated my ability to think creatively, deliver results by deadlines, and work collaboratively with stakeholders both inside and outside of the organization.  An amazing group of colleagues and I worked together to create an ad campaign that took consumer financial products back to basics using a platform that “vanilla” really is the best flavor, and sometimes, pb&j is the best comfort food around.  Success was in the numbers with double digit portfolio growth.

Tenacity

In all the challenging assignments and corporate projects I’ve worked on, I have learned there’s no substitute for tenacity.  Hit a roadlblock?  Take a step back and review other angles.  Look for scope creep on projects, implement a smaller solution than originally envisioned, but one that can be implemented faster and provide immediate relief to a pressing problem.  Hear it’s  “impossible” to create something?  Don’t ignore the advice or discount real roadblocks.  But with those in mind, dig a little deeper.  Do the research.  Find the stakeholders.  Seek out the “big data” people in your organization and see what they can help you mine when you can clearly articulate the vision.  My tenacity has helped a vendor identify and correct a significant error in their research presentation that affected not only my organization, but a significant portion of their clientele, and has led to the creation of a successful employee incentive tracking program that remains in use for marketing campaigns at the company today.

Vision

Nothing can be accomplished without a vision.  I’ve applied vision, and goal-setting in achieving my education milestones, and in completing each detailed task for the many corporate projects I’ve participated in.  Vision breaks things down into the incremental steps necessary for success to be achieved.  It keeps the project on track, minimizes eleventh hour surprises, and opens pathways for creative, critical thinking.  My interests, talents, and experience are varied across business sectors, but they have one thing in common. Education.  I am passionate about education, and whether I’m in the classroom, in the boardroom, or at home reading a good book, I’m always in a learning mode.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Oregon. My favorite stretch of sand on the West Coast.

Visit the rest of my site to learn more about my professional experience, academic projects, and where I find my inspiration..