Katie Staron

I don't have one single mentor that I can point to as my go-to person, but I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of wonderful people throughout my career. Learning from each of them has really helped me excel and get to where I am today. It's not just one person, but a population of all the people that I've had the ability to work with - I value their opinions and their feedback, and they've really had people in my corner who have helped me succeed. Beyond the people I've worked with, something that I refer back to a lot is not just my education, but my athletic career as well, and how that really helped to form who I am as a leader and working on a team. Understanding the dynamics from that perspective and how to continue to work and fine-tune your skill set and being able to be adaptable - I think the athletic side of it helped a ton throughout my professional career. As a mentor myself, I've had the opportunity to be a new hire buddy and work with some of our associates that have come in, really helping them ask those strategic questions and figure out the way to network properly within a large organization. That has certainly led to a couple of them getting promotions internally, and while that's not just my work, I've been so proud of what they've been able to accomplish and seeing them excel and succeed in their career, hopefully through the impact that I've been able to make with them as well.

I would have a ton of questions and want to figure out why they're interested in this field and understand what motivates them, and how you can help translate that into any job that you're going through or into. I would help them uncover what are some of the questions that they're able to ask and feel confident when they're walking into a room, because I feel like that helps tremendously when you are new and starting out. It's about being open to learning things and asking the questions, but also being confident in that you are meant to be there and really feeling that while they're going through their journey.

My hobbies and special interests center around working to strengthen my community through volunteering my time. I'm a co-leader for my daughter's Girl Scout troop and serve as the PTO membership chair in my town, where I'm involved in getting people to sign up for membership and keeping membership healthy and continuing to grow. I'm currently training for the New York City Marathon and fundraising for an organization called Family Reach, who provides non-medical grants and support for those going through cancer treatments. I've also been a part of our town's recreation committee and volunteer as a softball coach for my kids' leagues. Additionally, I've been a wish granter for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. At work, I'm proud to serve as an ambassador for our Disability Action Network within our Hoboken office, helping to provide programming and resources from that perspective. As a mom of two young kids, my time is limited, but I try to run as much as I can and dedicate myself to strengthening my community through these various volunteer efforts.