Her Story
About Madeline
My main area of expertise is public relations, which expands into many different areas and is changing every day. Right now, I'm really heavily leaning into the influencer marketing side, working with influencers and high-profile individuals to expand the impact of Special Olympics. I'm also building my way into being an expert at podcasting. I run a podcast here at Special Olympics, and I'm kind of the in-house editorial team for that, creating all the video, audio, graphics, and supplemental marketing materials. In regard to PR, it's the people aspect, the connection aspect of how we can make Special Olympics bigger and better with the least amount of funding possible. The absolute highlight of my career has been being able to work with individuals with intellectual disabilities. I get to see them really take ownership in volunteer positions, internships, and jobs, and it's been such a beautiful thing to be a part of their journey and to cheer them on along the way. This past week, one of my former interns who has an intellectual disability graduated from college from the same school I went to, and she was sending me her graduation pictures. I didn't expect to be so emotional about it, but it was one of those climb a mountain, turn around moments. We worked really hard together to get her to where she wanted to be, to prove that she had the skills to have a career, to do what everyone else is doing, regardless of what her ability was. That's what makes our work so important, that we have the chance to be there for those success stories.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Madeline
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I've received is really about returning the favor. In the nonprofit communications class I took as an undergraduate student, I remember sitting in so many classrooms, listening to so many panels, and just meeting people that were already so far ahead in their career that I could reach out to and say, hey, I have a question about this, or I'd like to know more about this. I know we're extremely busy in the work that we do now, but I still think there is so much value to answering the questions, being a panel guest, and showing up for people that are still early on in their career journey. Just last week, I had a student reach out to me just to ask about how I got involved with Special Olympics, and she said she had reached out to a few other people in nonprofit communications with other organizations and she never heard back, or got referred to someone's scheduling person in December. I just think there's no one who's ever too important to take a step back and just remember where you were at one point and to help someone who's there now. Everyone has 20 minutes.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Working in the nonprofit sector takes a lot of heart. We wear every single hat, we push through sleepless event weeks, and we give so much of ourselves, which really can take a toll. We're definitely not here for the money or for the recognition, but I can speak for a lot of my colleagues in saying that we're here for the hope that there's a better world on the other side of the work that we do. You might as well enjoy the journey. As a professional, maybe this isn't great advice, but I don't take myself too seriously. I've done enough therapy to know that I won't be reflecting on my response times to emails or how something was worded, but I'll remember how the work and the people made me feel over time, and how I really showed up to help someone else. I do the very best I can at work, but not to the detriment of living my life in a sustained way. We work in a very special industry in that we're on the road, we're in a not very corporate environment, so we're laughing, we're opening up to people, we're making friendships and connections, and we're just embracing the humanity of the job behind itself. I think that's really important to remember when you're first getting into this line of work.
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