ExperienceKimberly works for Strong Women, Strong Girls, a small Pittsburgh nonprofit focused on mentoring for women and girls. Her role as Communications and Operations Manager makes her one of just two non-program staff. In the year+ since taking on the role, Kimberly has worked alongside the organization's Executive Director to revitalize SWSG and transform it from a struggling and little-known nonprofit into a keystone of the female empowerment community in Pittsburgh.
Day to day, Kimberly manages all outgoing and internal communications for the organization, including digital interactions with key stakeholders (board members, donors/potential donors, volunteers); awareness marketing; fundraising campaign materials, both printed and digital; and event communications. She plans and leads the staff team to execute all major organizational events, including an annual fundraiser breakfast and two all-inclusive volunteer training events per year. Kimberly also oversees and manages multiple operational processes alongside the Executive Director, including financial and budget management and staff development. ___ Prior to taking on her current role, Kimberly completed two internships at UPMC in Clinical Marketing and retained her position as a temporary professional. In this role, she drove efforts to promote UPMC's nationally ranked hospitals, doctors, and clinical services. Kimberly wrote patient stories, edited written medical content and promotional pieces, and wrote for UPMC's HealthBeat blog - which she continues to contribute to as a freelance writer. She managed advertising and earned media campaigns and large-scale projects, coordinating the production of print, web, and social media for a specific purpose. ___ While a student at Waynesburg University, Kimberly was employed as a student writer in University Relations. There, she wrote press releases on behalf of the University on a weekly basis to inform the public about the school's progress and events, in addition to writing features, spotlights, and social media posts. Kimberly also spent two years as the Executive Editor at The Yellow Jacket, the University's student newspaper, in addition to two years as a reporter/Managing Editor. It is a weekly, award-winning publication that is produced by the hard work and dedication of about 30 students. In the year 2015, under Kimberly's leadership, the newspaper won 11 state, regional, and national awards, a new record for the almost 100-year-old paper. In the year 2016, also under Kimberly's leadership, the Yellow Jacket received 18 state, regional, and national awards, breaking the previous year's record. In the SPJ Mark of Excellence competition, four staff members, including Kimberly, won first place among small colleges in the entire nation in the In-Depth Reporting category for their work with covering the heroin epidemic in Greene County, PA. Kimberly's duties at the newspaper included reporting and writing news for all sections of the newspaper, generating story and photo ideas and assigning them to staff members, copy editing, writing headlines and designing and laying out the Campus section. She managed a staff of 25+ students in addition to volunteer writers and photographers and ensured the coordination and completion of advertising, sports, news and online components of the Yellow Jacket. She also coordinated the paper's budget and was responsible for communicating regularly with the newspaper's faculty advisors. EducationKimberly Baston is a graduate of Waynesburg University with a degree in Journalism and minors in Marketing and Public Relations. She is passionate about writing, editing, and corporate and nonprofit communications and is searching for a career that allows her to serve others through professional application of those skills.
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AwardsSPJ Mark of Excellence Awards, Nationwide Competition
Winner, In-Depth Reporting (First place among all small colleges in the U.S.) for coverage of local Heroin Epidemic (2016) SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards, Region 4 Winner, Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper (2016) Winner, In-Depth Reporting for coverage of Greene County, PA Heroin Epidemic (2016) Winner, Sports Writing for in-depth look at benefits and drawbacks of Division III sports (2016) Finalist, Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper (2014) Finalist, Best In-Depth Coverage for coverage of Waynesburg University President’s inauguration (2014) Twelve individual awards to Yellow Jacket staff members under my leadership (2015-16) PA NewsMedia Association Keystone Press Awards Honorable Mention, General News (2016) Honorable Mention, Ongoing News Coverage (2016) Honorable Mention, Sports Story (2016) First Place, Ongoing News Coverage (March 2015) Six individual awards to Yellow Jacket staff members under my leadership (2015-16) American Scholastic Press Association First place, Outstanding Story (Non-School Related) (2014) Most Outstanding University Newspaper and First Place with Special Merit (2015) Scripps Leadership Institute (October 2014 graduate) Girl Scout Gold Award (September 2013) |
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