Britta Brown - Staff Spotlight

Give us a brief overview of your day-to-day job

Welcome to my EMU world! My job title is Assistant Athletic Director for Development. A lot of people ask what exactly I do because you can see me involved in a lot of different areas in the athletic department. Overall in my official position, I work with fundraising efforts and strategy for Eastern Athletics, oversee donor and student-athlete alumni special events(Hall of Fame, Season Premiere Dinner, All-Sports Reunion, etc.), oversee football suite and loge game day hospitality and the operational process, design and create athletics development email marketing and solicitations, Bowl Game/postseason events and stewardship management, serve on the Athletics External Relations team, travel with teams and donors as needed, and manage our volunteers and graduate assistant. But I do get to be involved in other areas like the University Homecoming committee, working with athletics on social justice reform and actionable plans and being a part of the process to hire our Inaugural Head Women's Lacrosse Coach (I'm a proud former lacrosse student-athlete!) In carrying out these tasks, I work with many other departments especially the External Team quite a bit as the work overlaps.

How has your work/life changed now that we are in the midst of this pandemic?

The biggest impact has been the lack of interaction with colleagues, student-athletes and alumni. However, in doing the actual job, it doesn't change too much especially this time of year. If it was the Fall or early winter that could be different. Currently, I can do my work remotely which has been very helpful. My personal life has changed in that my commute time to work has been drastically cut down :-) I don't drive from downtown Detroit to Ypsilanti every day. It has allowed me to wake up, get to my home desk and stay focused on the tasks at hand.

What is your favorite part about your job?

The best part about my job is being able to strategically but also creatively curate experiences for our constituents. It's my mission that as long as someone is connected through us to the athletic department, that they have the best experience possible. I also love being able to contribute to the student-athlete experience. Being a former student-athlete, I understand the critical role college athletics can play in their lives.

Can you share a little bit about your "day in the life"?

The days can vary and this time of year it's a lot more focused on preparation for next year. I usually start the day checking and going through various emails in the morning. These will require email follow-up or phone calls. Then, I am currently preparing for Homecoming, the All-Sports Reunion, the Hall of Fame Ceremony, team newsletters, student-athlete alumni outreach efforts and our crowdfunding plans for next school year. Working through those items means emailing with vendors, communicating with Hall of Fame inductees on items we will need, creating and designing emails in Constant Contact (our email platform), reaching out to alumni, and taking time to calendar a year. It's a lot of different tasks which I enjoy!

I'm also a proud jeep wrangler owner so once the day ends, it's possible I will meet up with my other fellow Detroit JeepHERS. Or, you can catch me guest blogging or content creating for one of my RVing or travel partners under my RVing and adventure brand.

Thanks for coming to hang with me for a little!