PROFESSIONAL RESUME

Jeska Dzwigalski Kittenbrink

I work at the intersection of customer engagement, marketing, support and community development.
Specialties: Online Communities, Marketing, Brand Development, Social Strategy, Creative Campaigns, Customer Support, Communities of Practice, Knowledge Management, Learning, People Manager, Product Manager, PR & Social Media, Community Manager, Communication, Social Media, Marketing, Virtual Worlds, Culture and Change

Experience

Community Director (Consultant)
theBoardlist,
San Francisco, CA
January 2015 – June 2018
Drove community outreach, social media and marketing strategy and implementation for theBoardlist, a curated talent marketplace for CEOs, leading executives and investors to recommend, discover and connect highly qualified women across industries with private and public company boards in a private, trusted, peer-to-peer platform. Responsible for social media and content strategy, educational programming, real and virtual event strategy and execution, and I served as a primary contact to theBoardlist community of senior executives from across multiple industries and world class business leaders. Highlights: Led social media strategy that turned our brand into an industry leader within the diversity space, often referenced by the media and the diversity, educational, and tech influencer community. Produced 15 educational events for our community in multiple cities that included securing top speakers, coordinating with sponsors, vendors and managing ticket sales.

Consultant: Community, Marketing and Social Media Strategy
2015-Present
Community development, marketing, and social media strategy for technology and entertainment startups. Past Clients: theBoardlist, Allegory, Inc, Jov.io, Campus, Litquake

Sr. Manager of Community & Social Media
CreativeLive, San Francisco, CA
June 2013-March 2015
Social media strategy and implementation, community building, outreach, marketing and more for CreativeLive, the world’s leading live, online classroom for creative entrepreneurs. Highlights: Built 6 person social media and community outreach team from scratch to support daily live educational classes. Highlights: Produced influencer event during SXSW that included 12+ hours of live broadcast from the back of an SUV with startup executives and other celebrities; built high value customer program, alumni program and brand ambassador program. Managed creative promotions and campaigns for engaged audience; built social media analytics dashboard to track results.

Director of Marketing & Social Media
Coffee & Power – San Francisco, CA
July 2011 – June 2013
Assisted in the creation and launch Coffee & Power, a collaborative online marketplace where people could buy and sell services and Workclub, an iPhone, Android and Web-based application that encouraged professional social networking and collaboration. Responsible for marketing, PR, social, community, support activities for both products. My startup generalist duties were varied and included: creating and maintaining social media profiles, writing blog posts, press releases and customer emails, creating and tracking online advertising campaigns and customer outreach performance, coordinating with media outlets to place stories, tracking web and mobile metrics via Flurry, Google Analytics and DB queries, answering support emails and tracking down bugs, hosting events and customer meet-ups, building partnerships with co-working spaces.

Director of Content
Wikia, San Francisco, CA
June 2010 – July 2011
Managed content development organization, a 20 person team responsible for launch, growth and scaling of content verticals including Gaming, TV, Film, Sports, Cooking and DIY/Crafting of wiki communities with 40mm global monthly visitors. Worked closely with product, design, community and sales teams to increase audience acquisition and user retention and maximize online monetization Led cross-channel communication strategies (events, on-site messaging, email and social media channels).

Director of Community
Linden Lab – San Francisco, CA
July 2004 – May 2010
Managed passionate virtual world community of Second Life as it grew from 10k to 10 mil users. My role increased in responsibility over the 6 years, last 2 years spent as part of the Customer Support group, where I built and led team of 12 community and account managers. Responsible for all community management, high value customer support, and in-world experience programs, projects and events to increase high value customer happiness and retention and support a large customer ecosystem. Made many national and global media appearances and extensive external customer communication responsibilities. Spoke as virtual world, online community and social media expert at technology conferences from SXSW to Virtual Worlds Expo.

Web Marketing Coordinator
San Jose Museum of Art – San Jose, CA
July 2003 – July 2004
Responsible for design and production of press communications for all new museum exhibitions; website management, project development and statistical tracking; design of signage and electronic and print advertisements. Key projects included migration from paper to electronic press releases, contact database creation, and integration of new media into exhibitions. Also acted as temporary marketing director during 6-month search for new director.

Graduate Teaching Assistant
C-SPAN – Denver, CO/Washington DC
November 2001 – June 2003
Teaching assistant, participant and observer in ongoing distance learning pilot program, which took place via a dual broadband television line (the professor was located in Washington DC). Duties included traditional student teaching role and participation in the ongoing refinement of the project and its goals.

Education

MA, Digital Media Studies, University of Denver – Denver, CO 2001 – 2003
Thesis: Synergetic Self Identity and Posthuman Intelligence 
Thesis Advisor: Jeffrey Rutenbeck
BA English, BA Communications (Film/Photography), University of Detroit-Mercy – Detroit, MI
1995-1999

Selected Media Appearances

• “6 Ways You Can Respond To Sexual Harassment In The Workplace” Forbes, April 20, 2018
• “Coffee & Power brews new locale in Portland, eyes Seattle coffee shops for ‘workclub’” Geek Wire (interview), February 14, 2012
• “The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #14: Nicholas Rombes in Conversation with Jeska Dzwigalski.” The Rumpus, June 25, 2010
• “The Luxury Index 2008.” Time Magazine (interview on virtual goods), November 19, 2008
• “Better Search in Virtual Worlds.” MIT Technology Review (interview), November 6, 2007
• “Video games: For women, new appeal.” Christian Science Monitor (interview), April 16, 2008
• “An Interview with Jeska Linden about Nonprofits in Second Life.” (Beth Kanter’s Blog) July 13, 2006

Other Interests

When not in front of her laptop, Jeska can be found crafting, listening to live music, dancing with her can-can troupe, taking photos with her DSLR (or more frequently, her iPhone), visiting modern art museums, learning about the newest mixology trends for her blog geekswithdrinks.com or baking tasty, tasty cupcakes.

References available upon request