Paula Pena

I fell into marketing and social media somewhat accidentally after graduating in 2013, right when Instagram was this new burgeoning platform and bosses would say 'you're young, you can do social media.' I started in entertainment in LA, working for a movie studio, which was what I really wanted to do after school. But I thought tech might be less volatile, so I moved to Austin and joined IBM as a marketing generalist, doing social media and digital marketing. Then I moved to Bumble as one of the first 30 employees on a very small social team, which was a really exciting time. I started in a strategic role for about a year and a half, then moved into social content production for about six months. Bumble was really key in my career because I got to work for a mission-driven brand focused on creating a safer space for women online, and they were doing things like working on legislation to make sending unsolicited pictures illegal in Texas. After that, I wanted to continue down the path of mission-driven marketing, so I joined Amazon's sustainability department, doing social for the Climate Pledge, which is Amazon's commitment to achieve net zero carbon by 2040 and bring the private sector along with them. Now I'm at Pernuvo, a health tech company that's also very mission-driven, helping consumers be more proactive about their health by providing MRI services meant to detect aneurysms and early-stage cancers. My area of expertise is definitely organic social, end to end, from strategy to ideation, content development, and execution. I've also done some growth marketing and paid social, but primarily I focus on social media.