Pronouns: she/her/hers

Hi, I’m Sandy — a writer, project manager, and digital specialist based in New York City. I currently serve as the Communications and Special Projects Manager at SAGE, the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ elders. In this role, I help manage a range of communications projects and lead cross-functional efforts to streamline workflows across teams. I’m especially passionate about building systems that help communications teams work more effectively and collaboratively.

Before joining SAGE, I held communications roles at a number of mission-driven organizations, including Everytown for Gun Safety, PEN America, and WITNESS. Across these roles, I’ve led or supported work in website management, digital strategy, email marketing, and social media — often serving as a bridge between communications and programmatic teams. Since entering the field in 2019, I’ve developed a breadth of experience across digital platforms — and continue to be energized by curiosity, grounded in collaboration, and driven by a belief that strong communication is essential to engaging diverse audiences and delivering ideas with impact.

I’m a self-directed learner who thrives on observation, iteration, and hands-on practice. As an intern at Everytown, I taught myself HTML and CSS using tools like W3Schools and Codecademy, and by digging into the back-end code of web pages and email campaigns to see how things were built. I enjoy learning by reverse-engineering systems and figuring out how to apply what I find to new projects. That same curiosity has helped me become fluent in a range of project management platforms — including Notion, Airtable, and Microsoft Planner — which I’ve learned to navigate and adapt through hands-on experimentation, team collaboration, and real-world problem-solving.

My path to communications began with a deep love of storytelling. I studied journalism in college and remain endlessly fascinated by the ways language, media, and technology intersect to shape our world. I earned a BS in Journalism and Media Studies from the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, where I was awarded the Vanguard Prize in Journalism. I also completed an MA in Liberal Studies and a certificate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy from The Graduate Center, CUNY. While there, I created two web-based projects focused on the impact of journalism: The Local Accountability Journalism Tracker, which won the 2020-2021 MALS Capstone Project Prize, and Journalism and COVID-19: The Toll of a Pandemic.

Outside of work, I’m a proud member of the Asian American Journalists Association and NTEN, a former mentor with Girls Write Now, and a 2022-2023 Community Fellow at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.

I’m originally from Brooklyn and now live in Queens. I’ve been a loyal Brooklyn Nets fan since their New Jersey days and am also a much newer — but extremely passionate — Tampa Bay Rays fan. In my spare time, you can usually find me at a ballpark, planning my next baseball trip, or creating content for my blog and Instagram page, Sandy and the Rays, where I share stories from my baseball fandom and travels. Inspired by my love of the Rays and their home at Tropicana Field, I created Trop! In the Name of Love after the ballpark was severely damaged by Hurricane Milton in October 2024. It’s a website that collects personal stories from fans about their experiences at the ballpark, documenting the moments and memories that make Tropicana Field special.

October 2023 — Present

New York, NY

Communications and Special Projects Manager

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, subject matter experts, and external vendors to execute communications and marketing projects, ensuring timelines and deliverables are met.
• Facilitate interdepartmental workflows and regularly assess tools and processes in partnership with IT, Data, and program teams to strengthen collaboration.
• Oversee the Communications team’s ticketing system and meet with team members to address workflow issues.
• Respond to constituent inquiries via the info box and led the development of an automated system that reduced manual workload and improved workflow efficiency across departments.
• Created standard operating procedures (SOPs) to define timelines and processes for key Communications tasks.
• Develop and maintain a cross-departmental calendar tracking awareness days and email campaign dates.
• Contribute to live event coverage by capturing photos and videos, live-streaming, and producing social media content to amplify real-time engagement and audience reach.
• Execute web production, copyediting, email builds, social media posts, and graphic design tasks.

January 2022 — October 2023

New York, NY

Associate Product Manager (July 2022 — October 2023)

• Oversaw timelines and project plans for digital products and content across Everytown’s 15+ web properties.
• Created and maintained documentation to preserve institutional knowledge and support long-term product success.
• Managed vendor relationships in partnership with the Director of Digital Technology.
• Analyzed website performance using Google Analytics and SEO tools to guide data-informed decisions.
• Supported in web production, security, and ongoing site maintenance.
• Trained staff on how to use web tools effectively.
• Owned blog production workflows and coordinated assignments across the Digital team following the Associate Director of Content’s departure.

Content Specialist (January 2022 — July 2022)

• Wrote, edited, and proofread content across Everytown’s web properties.
• Collaborated across departments and managed processes to bring content to life.
• Led and project managed the development of new web products, features, and content.
• Completed web production tasks, including building landing pages, reports, and fact sheets.
• Curated homepage and key landing pages to support daily content needs and major campaigns.
• Boosted engagement by applying insights from SEO and analytics in collaboration with the Digital team.
• Demonstrated strong organizational and workflow skills, leading to a transition into a product-focused role; built a new shared department content calendar to support cross-team planning.

January 2020 — January 2022

New York, NY

Digital Communications Coordinator (January 2021 — January 2022)

Digital Communications Assistant (January 2020 — January 2021)

• Managed the publication lifecycle of event pages, blog posts, news items, and other web updates and requests.
• Oversaw and provided expertise on how major campaigns looked on the website.
• Copyedited, published, and curated content for the homepage and other parts of the website.
• Compiled and analyzed weekly website traffic data to inform digital strategy and optimize content performance.
• Streamlined web content workflows, especially for event pages, by improving tools, forms, and documentation.
• Led website trainings for staff, offering guidance on platform use, content best practices, and web build feedback.
• Coordinated with a part-time web project manager and external developers to implement site improvements.

May 2019 — January 2020

Brooklyn, NY

Communications Associate

• Worked with external developers on major web projects, including WITNESS’ annual report and website relaunch.
• Led the editorial process by developing blog post ideas and partnering with program managers to produce content.
• Managed and executed social media strategy across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn; tracked performance and led analytics reporting.
• Drafted, built, and sent newsletters to an audience of 16,000+ users, ensuring timely and targeted communication.
• Provided social media coverage and spoke at events, workshops, and conferences.

June 2018 — May 2019

New York, NY

Digital Intern

• Project-managed the execution of the new Everytown Law website.
• Produced and designed web content and pages for advocacy, legal, research, and litigation campaigns.
• Led quality assurance and testing for digital products, including the Gun Sense Voter tool.
  
• Refreshed and created content across Everytown’s web properties.
• Drafted and edited 100+ national and state-level email campaigns sent to over two million users.
• Evaluated Students Demand Action’s social media communications to inform new content creation.

I'm a Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Gemini Rising. I wouldn't consider myself a huge astrology buff or believer in astrology, although I've always felt like a Virgo. I'd also say the combination of Virgo Sun, Cancer Moon, Gemini Rising represents me quite well. Make with it what you will.

Honestly, anything with potatoes. It's the most versatile food, and you can make every meal of the day with it! My dad loves retelling the story of the very first time I ate a potato, which allegedly was a baked potato at Wendy's (I have no recollection of this).

I'm a hardcore fan of mainstream pop music. I generally like explaining to people that it's really anything that comes up on Z100. My favorite artists include Aly & AJ, James Arthur, Kelly Clarkson, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Duncan Laurence, Shawn Mendes, OneRepublic, Olivia Rodrigo, and Ed Sheeran.

Even still, people find that I'm fairly unpredictable with my music taste — friends often recommend songs to me thinking I'll like them, and very rarely do those songs make the cut on my playlists.

I'm pretty much the only sports fan in my family. My dad is the only other family member who can be considered a sports fan, and he's much more sports literate than I am when it comes to being knowledgeable about a wider range of sports (I only follow baseball and basketball). However, he doesn't care about sports from a team fandom perspective.

This is usually surprising to others because people, at an early age, often inherit their sports fandoms from older family members. Despite following sports more casually, my dad also played no role in my sports fandom origin stories.

My alarm is synced with my Amazon Echo to play my fast-paced songs playlist once the alarm is dismissed, so I suppose listening to upbeat music is the very first thing I do in the morning.

After I get up, I head to the kitchen to make a cup of caffeine. My go-to cup of caffeine is a matcha green tea latte (using a mix from Trader Joe's), but depending on the day, I might switch things up with a chai latte (also a mix from Trader Joe's) or a cup of jasmine matcha green tea (ITO EN's tea bags). Some days might also demand two cups of caffeine, so I could find myself having both a matcha green tea latte and a chai latte.

I actually do this string of activities quite often on Saturdays, so this is a completely accurate answer on my part. Shortly after moving to Astoria, I discovered that I love being in the Court Square area of Long Island City — it's only a 20-minute commute from me, and it's now my favorite part of Queens. Court Square has book culture LIC (my favorite bookstore), Trader Joe's, and Teso (a Japanese department store). I don't always stop at Teso, but my go-to self-care activity is routinely going to book culture LIC and Trader Joe's. I pretty much call this my "Court Square run."

I grew up in Bath Beach/Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and I will always consider Brooklyn “home.” Living in Bensonhurst for a little more than the first two decades of my life, I was used to having a plethora of 99 cent stores in my neighborhood. When I moved to Astoria, I noticed one of the only things that reminded me of home was the 99 cent store across the street from my apartment.

Since moving out of the borough, I don't find myself back in Brooklyn often. However, I've made more of an effort to go to Nets games — I've been a mini/quarter season plan holder since the 2022-2023 season — and consider it a good excuse to be back “home” in Brooklyn.

I studied abroad in Japan for three weeks when I was a junior in college, and I loved every second of it! I spent most of my time in Tokyo, but I also got to be in Chiba, Kamakura, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. Japan is by far my favorite place that I've visited.

I've also traveled to a fair amount of cities in the United States, and I suppose it wouldn't be a surprise that I gravitate toward cities in the Northeast. My favorites (in this order) are Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; and Philadelphia.

In December 2019, I learned that the Sons of Serendip — a classical-crossover quartet and my favorite act historically from America's Got Talent — were rounding out their winter tour with a couple of same-day holiday concerts in Boston. On a whim, I decided the night before the concerts that I would take a trip to Boston to see them perform. This made for an incredible story because the Northeast had a crazy snowstorm that day, which led the Sons of Serendip to cancel their second concert that night (that was the one I bought a ticket for). That led me to try contacting the group and venue on several platforms to see if they could accommodate me for the first concert. Fortunately, the venue happily obliged, although my bus ended up being significantly delayed due to the weather (I was still able to catch most of the second half of the concert).

COVID complicated things, but because the group hasn't played concerts in New York City in years, I've made it an annual tradition to be in Boston for their holiday concert. I'm now up to seeing them four years in Boston (2019, 2022, 2023, 2024).

I love Broadway shows, and I try to catch one whenever possible (as much as expenses will allow, of course). There are always a lot of Broadway shows on my watchlist!

My favorite Broadway play is The Inheritance (one of the most devastating productions I've ever seen), and my favorite Broadway musical is Moulin Rouge.