Her Story
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth Duswalt serves as Global Strategic Brand Partnerships Director at TikTok, leading strategic brand partnerships and driving growth in the TikTok Shop ecosystem. With three and a half years focused on social commerce, she builds out global strategies for key accounts and helps major brands onboard successfully to the complex marketplace. Her educational background includes studies in international relations and French at Bucknell University, where she was a Division I women's lacrosse athlete. She attributes her success to her supportive family and strong mentors, including Margaret Wright from her early career at Dina Mackney Designs. She values kindness, patience, and recognizing individual strengths in team settings.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elizabeth
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think probably my family. My parents were very involved for my siblings and I, and they were very supportive of us having a strong education and working hard, and I think they led by example. So I think my parents then also having really strong mentors along the way, too, that I could learn from.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Use work like it's school. To be in a job or be in an experience for as long as you're learning, and then once you feel like you're not learning, it's time to move on.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Not every job is going to be a dream job. It might always sound the most glamorous on paper, but they're often the ones where you'll learn the most from. And that every opportunity is an opportunity to grow. So you might not be where you want to be right now, but it's a zone to the thing that you think is your end goal, or what your dream is.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Since our field is so new, the biggest piece is being able to educate at scale how to properly use TikTok Shop and social commerce. Unless you've worked at TikTok, not too many have social commerce experience thus far. And also it's a very resource-intensive channel, so the biggest challenge is usually finding either the right people or the right agency to help support.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Being kind and patient is really important for work. That's something that I think I always get good feedback on, is that I try and keep a level head and level temperament, especially when you work with a lot of cross-functional things like I do. Being a good manager is understanding that everyone has their own strengths, and letting their strengths shine, because no one can do everything.
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