ABOUT JILLIAN
BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD BRAND,
I UNDERSTOOD WHAT SPORTS COULD MEAN.
I grew up in Illinois in a family where sports were part of the language. My dad loved Chicago teams, and some of my earliest sports memories aren't about final scores. They're about the places we went, the people I was with and the way those moments stayed with me.
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There's a photograph of my dad holding my younger brother's hand and mine as we walk through a tunnel at Wrigley Field. I was probably around seven or eight. I didn't leave that day knowing I wanted a career in sports. I certainly didn't know what brand marketing was but I understand now why that photograph still matters to me.
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The strongest sports brands become attached to people, places, and moments until they're no longer something we simply watch. They become part of what we remember.
WHEN A GAME BECOMES SOMETHING BIGGER
Years later, when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, I remember being in High School and being too nervous to watch the end of the game, I listened instead.
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What stayed with me wasn't only that they won. It was everything surrounding it: the reaction across Chicago, generations of families attached to the same moment, and more than a century of history suddenly reaching a different ending.
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It reinforced something I had experienced long before I had professional language for it. Sports can create relationships that last for decades. They become intertwined with family, place, identity, and memory.
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That's the relationship I've built my career around understanding.
THE PATH HERE
2020 - 2023
COLORADO STATE & COLORADO EAGLES
I studied journalism and media communications while beginning my career in professional hockey, working across media relations, digital content, social strategy, and game-day communications.
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It taught me how quickly the experience of a team extends beyond what happens during the game and how storytelling can bring people closer to it.
Storytelling & CommunicationsÂ
NASCAR - IOWA SPEEDWAY
2024 - 2026
Integrated Marketing & Fan Engagement
At Iowa Speedway, my work expanded across integrated marketing, digital and social content, promotions, sponsorship activation and fan engagement surrounding two consecutive sold-out NASCAR Cup Series events.
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It was where the different parts of my background began coming together: story, experience, audience, and brand.
LEARNING SPORTS FROM DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE BUSINESS
MOTORSPORTS
2023
Communications & Live Experience
Experiences with Tony Stewart Racing (NHRA) and Circuit of the Americas introduced me to different sides of motorsports, from team communications and real-time race coverage to hospitality and major-event execution.
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It expanded my understanding of the many touchpoint that shape someone's experience with a sports property.
FC CINCINNATI
2026 - PRESENT
Marketing Coordinator
Today. I work in professional soccer as a Marketing Coordinator, continuing to build my experience at the intersection of brand, sport, and culture.
PEOPLE BEFORE PERFORMANCE
ATHLETES ARE PEOPLE BEFORE THEY'RE PERFORMERS.
Working across professional sports has shaped how I think about the relationship between athletes, organizations, and supporters.
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Athletes are asked to be competitors, public figures, storytellers, and representatives of an organization - often all at once. Brand and marketing teams have a responsibility to remember the person carrying those expectations.
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I believe meaningful athlete storytelling starts with trust. Access should never be mistaken for entitlement, participation shouldn't be assumed, and the strongest stories are built with people rather than extracted from them.
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Know the person before telling the story.
WHAT I BELIEVE
FANS DESERVE STORIES THEY CAN BELIEVE IN.
ATHLETES DESERVE TO BE SEEN AS HUMAN BEINGS.
BRAND EXISTS TO CONNECT THOSE TWO TRUTHS.
I work for the fans, but I advocate for the athletes.
HOW I APPROACH THE WORK
CULTURE SHOULD BE REVEALED, NOT MANUFACTURED.
FANS ARE PARTICIPANTS, NOT JUST AN AUDIENCE.
EMOTION AND BUSINESS AREN'T OPPOSITES.
Understand what an organization means before deciding what it should say.
The opportunity to tell someone's story begins with earning the relationship that makes authentic storytelling possible.
The strongest idea often begin by recognizing what's already meaningful to people and giving it room to grow.
Supporters create traditions, language, memories, and communities of their own. Great brands understand how to participate without trying to control them.
Sports organizations have an extraordinary ability to build lasting emotional relationships. Deepening those relationships can create value far beyond a single campaign through advocacy, retention, attendance, viewership, and lifetime fandom.
BRAND COMES BEFORE CAMPAIGN.
TRUST COMES BEFORE STORYTELLING.
WHAT'S NEXT
THE WORK I WANT TO KEEP DOING
BRAND STRATEGY • INTEGRATED MARKETING • FAN AFFINITY & CULTURE Â
ATHLETE STORYTELLING • EXPERIENTIAL & COMMUNITY MARKETING
I'm drawn to brand work that begins before the campaign brief: understanding who an organization is, what it means to the people around it and where there's an opportunity to build a deeper relationship.
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I want to keep developing the ideas, stories, and experience that make sports organizations worth caring about and connecting the emotional affinity to meaningful business outcomes.