What is your name and occupation?
My name is Ashlee Edwards, and I am a Digital Strategist working in news.
What education and career path led you to become a Digital Strategist?
To start, I had no intention of working in news. I went to school at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Fairmont, WV, to study Visual Communication which is a hodgepodge of different things. My plan was to become a graphic designer and develop websites. A work-study opportunity became available at WBOY—a local news station in Clarksburg, WV—so I started there as a Production Tech running cameras, audio, and stuff like that for the station. I advanced and eventually started directing newscasts myself.
One day, I was driving home during a snow emergency. The Interstate was closed, but since I worked in news, I had to be on the road regardless of weather conditions. I ended up rolling my Blazer three times due to black ice, and that was the first of three car accidents I had within about a year. The second accident happened when a deer ran into my car. Then, there was a third incident in which a turkey went through my windshield on Interstate 79 and hit me in the face. That string of accidents really freaked me out, so I moved back home. After two or three weeks, I decided living at home wasn’t going to work, and one day I decided to pack my bags and move to Myrtle Beach to live with my cousin.
I started putting in applications with TV stations in the area and found an opening for a web and ad designer. I had several different job titles while I was there, including Interactive Media Coordinator and Product Coordinator. My job was to ensure the website worked well in terms of user experience, and I created digital ads for the sales team. I even wrote news stories which felt weird because I wasn’t trained to do that. However, I’m grateful for that experience because I never realized I could write stories, and it shifted my perspective on what I could accomplish.
Eventually, I decided living in Myrtle Beach was not a great match for me, so I relocated to Augusta, GA, for a new role as Digital Sales Coordinator. This is when I taught myself PHP and built an entire standalone website for the station’s lifestyle cooking show, The Dish, and that site was completely created and maintained by me. I was married to a woman at this time, and we started to feel uncomfortable in our neighborhood as we were targets of a string of hostile events because of our sexuality, like having our tires slashed. My partner and I decided to prioritize our safety and move, so we packed our bags and headed to Pennsylvania.
The new job came with a pay cut, but I was willing to make that sacrifice to ensure my family’s safety. During this time, I had the opportunity to learn a motion graphics program called Ignite. This graphics program is used by very large companies like ESPN and ABC to create the animations at the bottom of the screen during shows or superimposing sports players during game coverage. I even learned to use Visual Logic and scripting to make graphics from our parent company’s hub work for our ecosystem application. On top of that, I started using this program to make the graphics functional and create additional graphics based on the needs of our local station. I did all of that and helped launch an entirely new graphics package within the first five months of this job.
After a year, I made a lateral move to Digital Sales and stuck with web development stuff like increasing website traffic and coached the newsroom on how to write stories so our work would be indexed on Google. I moved up to Digital Executive Producer quickly, and I restructured the new channel’s digital-based department. I was recognized in June 2021 for being a Top Notch Communicator, meaning my work and leadership successfully drove lots of traffic to our website, and I was also recognized by the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters for Outstanding Use of Digital Media for the 10th Congressional Debate Page on their website. Also, I received first place for Best Digital Presence by the Keystone Media Awards. This was my first position where people really leaned on me for advice on running a website or growing an online audience.
I am most proud of my work at this job, but it was also a uniquely challenging time. This period in the news cycle saw a lot of unrest with events like the march in Charlottesville, the COVID pandemic, and the 20 year anniversary of 911. My career in news began just three weeks before 911 happened, so I saw everything for the first time from a news standpoint, and then I was responsible for creating a big multimedia project for our website to commemorate 911 on its twentieth anniversary. Within the news world, there’s an agreement that you don’t show the planes hitting the towers, and you don’t show people jumping from the buildings. However, those photos still exist, and I had to see them often while looking for images to support my multimedia project. I was deeply impacted by the footage when 911 unfolded, and it was difficult for me to revisit it for such an extended period.
I needed relief from such a heavy experience, so I applied for a Digital Product Manager role at a public media station where I focused on analytics. The new job came with a pay raise, and I finally had a steady work schedule which allowed me to show up at 8:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm. It was a nice change. I’ve shifted to a digital sales position where I help the sales team identify digital marketing opportunities and determine the most effective marketing strategies. I also support the sales team in pitching digital campaigns, monitoring performance, and analyzing key metrics. My team right now is predominantly women, and I love that they know what they’re doing and take care of business. Everyone is so cooperative, and there’s no one-upmanship or jealousy.
What is your advice for other women who want to follow a career path like yours?
Stay curious. Curiosity is what led me here. See a term you don’t know? Okay, Google it. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. That’s how I learned a lot of what I know.
This is still a very male-dominated field. However, just know that if you are a woman, you belong here.
Looking back, I didn’t need to go to school to build my career. You can learn web development or any of the other IT fields online for relatively little money. There are so many free resources like Professor Messer who teaches the pathway to get the specific tech certifications needed for your career goals, so you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to get a degree from a university. Check out websites like Team Treehouse which has a great community for support. I recommend exploring all your options before deciding to take on school loans.
I’ve seen a lot of chatter in online forums about how difficult it is to find a job in tech these days. Do you think that’s true, or is there still a strong job market for tech professionals?
There is no shortage of jobs in the tech world. I will say the economy may not be the best right now, and that has certainly had a negative impact on job openings. However, that’s every field across the board, so IT jobs will be affected as well. We live in a very tech-oriented world, and it’d be impossible to do away with all the jobs that support that.
I know you have an inspiring hobby, although maybe you’d consider it more of a way of life. Would you like to talk about that?
I devote a lot of time to weightlifting, and it is much more of a lifestyle than a hobby for me. It saved my life in a lot of ways because it helped me build confidence in my strength and my resilience which I have used to push forward. I’m an Olympic weightlifter, and just so everyone knows, I’m not going to the Olympics. I’m 42 years old, so I’m not trying to compete at that level, but I would have taken a shot at it if I had discovered it earlier.
Olympic weightlifting is different from both bodybuilding and powerlifting. Bodybuilding focuses on creating pretty muscles, and there is less emphasis on functional strength, not that there is anything wrong with that. Powerlifting emphasizes maximal strength in three lifts—the squat, bench press, and deadlift. However, Olympic weightlifting focuses on two lifts which are the snatch as well as the clean and jerk. The snatch is a move where you grab the weight off the floor and catch it overhead all in one movement, but the clean and jerk involves lifting the barbell from the floor up to the shoulders and then catching it overhead in a second movement.
I’ve been athletic most of my life, but starting CrossFit created the foundation for me to lift the way I do. Now I compete both locally and nationally. I’m very competitive which helped me place as high as 15th in the country for my age division and weight class.
Could you share your experience as a queer woman in the workplace?
My coworkers have been respectful overall, but I remember one day when Katy Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl” was playing at work which prompted a lady to announce how she hates thinking her kids might hear it. I wasn’t out at the time, but it was very uncomfortable hearing that as a closeted lesbian. There were a lot of similar incidents which I chalk up to where America was in the 2000s, and though I won’t call it excusable, I would say it was typical for the area where I lived then.
There were a couple of places I lived where people very openly disapproved of things like same-sex couples. After I came out, there were a few times I heard someone say something upsetting. People would often stare at me when I was in public or at my job.
However, what bothered me the most was when I walked into the bathroom at work, and a coworker always looked at me as if I didn’t belong there. I may not have looked very feminine like her, but I am a woman in the women’s bathroom which I must use because I am at work. There were always uncomfortable moments like that. I remember when I resigned from that job. My boss announced that I had some news to share, and one woman slapped the table and said, “Oh, don’t tell me you’re resigning, Ashlee. I’d rather hear you and your wife are having a baby than have you resign.” I responded that I’d be out of there in two weeks!
Do you have any advice for other queer women in the workplace?
Don’t lose yourself. Don’t make yourself smaller for someone else’s comfort. You’re going to experience bigotry which can be difficult to navigate, but don’t forget who you are. Continue to be yourself and have pride in who you are. Don’t allow anyone to take that from you.
What is something you are excited about right now?
I have decided to try to get on the local LGBT center’s board. At first, I thought I wasn’t capable of serving because I have a little bit of impostor syndrome. I’m from southern West Virginia, and I want to break free from the mindset that something as important as an organization’s board is not the space for me. A conversation with a friend made me realize I do belong in that space, and I’m perfectly capable because I have overcome so much to be where I am now. I deserve to at least try to get on that board. I’m worthy of it. I’m smart. I’m successful. I’ve worked hard, and I belong there as much as anyone else. My motivation comes from remembering where I am from and how unbelievably scared I was to come out.
Interview conducted, transcribed, and written by Marlynda Arnett, Program Innovation Leader for West Virginia Women Work.
