Pronouns: she/her/hers

Sandy is a writer, project manager, and digital content creator and strategist in the nonprofit field. As someone who proudly identifies as asexual, she has the honor of serving as the Communications and Special Projects Manager at SAGE, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ elders. Before joining SAGE, Sandy worked at Everytown for Gun Safety, PEN America, and WITNESS. Sandy is also a member of the Asian American Journalists Association and NTEN, mentor alumna of the Girls Write Now community, and 2022-2023 Community Fellow at the Institute for Nonprofit Practice.

With an educational background in journalism, Sandy's love for writing, storytelling, and the power of words drew her to the nonprofit communications field. Since 2019, she has worked in a variety of nonprofit communications roles: Her areas of specialty are websites and project management, but she also has experience with social media platforms and email newsletters. As a naturally curious and quick learner, Sandy is a largely self-taught organizational whiz who takes pride in her ability to apply productivity tools to organizational challenges. Her expansive experience in nonprofit communications also allows her to efficiently manage projects for the SAGE Marketing and Communications team and develop new, streamlined systems by leveraging her understanding of communications teams.

A proud product of CUNY, Sandy received her MA in Liberal Studies (MALS) and certificate in Interactive Technology and Pedagogy from The Graduate Center, CUNY. At The Graduate Center, she created two projects: The Local Accountability Journalism Tracker, which won the 2020-2021 MALS Capstone Project Prize, and Journalism and COVID-19: The Toll of a Pandemic, an interactive web project focusing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on journalism in the United States. Sandy also holds a BS in Journalism and Media Studies from the Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College, where she was awarded the Vanguard Prize in Journalism.

Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Sandy currently resides in Queens. She is an avid sports fan, and her allegiance to the Brooklyn Nets represents her New York spirit (although she has been a Nets fan since 2006, when the team was still based in New Jersey). She also supports the Tampa Bay Rays as a much newer but extremely passionate baseball fan. In her free time, she can be found creating content for her Rays blog, Sandy and the Rays, which has an Instagram account and a website.

October 2023 — Present

New York, NY

Communications and Special Projects Manager

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, subject matter experts, and external vendors and partners to execute communications and marketing projects.
  
• Provide insight on marketing and communications strategy and tactics to help projects meet their goals.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for project updates.
• Track project milestones, provide status reports, and ensure projects are on track to meet grant/funder requirements and deliverables.
• Facilitate efficient project workflow across departments, systems, and software.
• Explore innovative ways for the Communications team to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to meet the department’s objectives and deliverables.

January 2022 — October 2023

New York, NY

Associate Product Manager (July 2022 — October 2023)

• Oversaw timelines and project plans to ensure deadlines were met for products and content across Everytown’s more than 15 web properties.
• Created and maintained documentation to preserve institutional knowledge and allow for product success in the long run.
• Managed relationships with website vendors in collaboration with the Director of Digital Technology.
• Analyzed website performance through Google Analytics, SEO tools, and others to make data-informed decisions on website best practices.
• Supported in web production, security, and maintenance.
• Trained staff on how to use web tools effectively.
• Delegated assignments and managed the publication lifecycle of blog posts among the Digital team, following the departure of the Associate Director of Content.

Content Specialist (January 2022 — July 2022)

• Wrote, edited, and proofread content across Everytown’s web properties.
• Curated content for homepages and other webpages to keep up to date for day-to-day needs and major campaigns.
• 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.
• Collaborated across departments and managed processes to make content come to life.
• Cultivated audience and web engagement through insights and SEO efforts in collaboration with the Digital team.
• Shifted to a product role after demonstrating skills in improving team systems, workflows, and documentation, including building out a new shared team content calendar.
  

January 2020 — January 2022

New York, NY

Digital Communications Coordinator (January 2021 — January 2022)

Digital Communications Assistant (January 2020 — January 2021)

• Oversaw and provided expertise on how major campaigns looked on the website, including We Will Emerge, the PEN World Voices Festival, World Press Freedom Day, and Banned Books Week.
• Managed the publication lifecycle of event pages, blog posts, news items, and other web revisions and requests.
• Copyedited, posted, and curated content for the homepage and other parts of the website.
• Sourced photos and crafted basic graphics for the website.
• Compiled, analyzed, and shared weekly website traffic data.
• Streamlined processes and platforms for web workflows, including event page requests.
• Led website trainings and provided staff with website-related tips, best practices, and feedback on web builds.
• Coordinated with part-time web project manager and external development firm to work on site improvements.
  

May 2019 — January 2020

Brooklyn, NY

Communications Associate

• Oversaw editorial process: identifying opportunities for blog posts and executing blog posts with program managers.
• Worked with external web developers on web projects such as WITNESS’ annual report and website relaunch.
• Led social media campaigns and strategy: tracking/analyzing metrics and managing all main WITNESS branded social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn).
• Drafted, built, and sent timely newsletters to an audience of over 16,000 users.
• Attended events, workshops, and conferences for social media coverage and speaking engagements.

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 of new digital products such as the Gun Sense Voter tool.
• Refreshed and created new content across Everytown’s web properties.
• Drafted and edited 100+ national and state-level email campaigns for a list of over two million users.
• Evaluated Students Demand Action’s social media communications to help create new content.
  

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 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 three years in Boston (2019, 2022, 2023).

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.