Wanda Croudy-Thompson
She wasn't quite sure what her career path
would be, but at age eleven when she coordinated her first
special event, Wanda was on her road to success. The event
was a carnival she spearheaded in her Plainfield, New Jersey
backyard. It was complete with games and prizes, crafts and
a clown (herself in make-up). She knew her market, about 15
small children that lived nearby. In the end she saw that
this was a good thing, "Everyone was happy, I didn't
destroy my parent's backyard and I made a profit," she
says.
However, it wasn't until Wanda Croudy took
a course in public relations while attending the Fashion Institute
of Technology in Manhattan that she discovered she could build
a career doing what she loved to do. A project assignment
at FIT led her to Public Relations maven Terrie Williams who
worked for ESSENCE Magazine at the time. Wanda chose to do
a research project on the ESSENCE television program. This
lead to a long-lasting relationship with Ms. Williams and
from that friendship Wanda landed a job at ESSENCE Communications
and then a stint as the Executive Assistant at The Terrie
Williams Agency. "Anything and everything I ever wanted
to know about PR I learned while working at TWA," says
Wanda. That experience left her primed to work for the small
start-up agency, with the big clients Morgan Orchid Rhodes.
While working with the trail-blazing Alberta Rhodes and Sheila
Eldridge, Wanda quickly solidified her career handling the
accounts for music producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Mint
Condition, LeVert, Lonette McGee and Mattel Toys.
When the company dissolved, Wanda accepted
the job of Director of Public Relations for Teddy Reily's
Virginia-based company L.O.R. Records. Though short-lived,
the position offered her the opportunity to develop and coordinate
Teddy's Fourth of July weekend celebration, that included
an amateur talent show at Chyrsler Hall, a youth basketball
tournament with NBA guest Alonzo Morning and a picnic in the
park for the community. Instead of moving, the single-mother
of a seven-year-old-son decided to remain in the southern
state and become the publicist for the prestigious Chrysler
Museum of Art.
But when the music industry called she answered
and she and her son, Randy, were off to the San Francisco
Bay Area to become the Director of Marketing and Communications
for Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy's newly created Y Entertainment.
"It was a multi-faceted company. I was really impressed
with what they were trying to accomplish." Unfortunately
funds needed to see the music producing duo's vision come
to life didn't materialize resulting in another crossroad
for Wanda to face. "After that job ended, I went back
to school and got my Master's Degree," she confesses.
Now the tides have turned again; the San
Francisco Bay area, now relocated to New York executive, takes
the reins of Membership Director for the National Association
of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment, Inc.
Wanda is determined to help unite the many phenomenal women
in the entertainment industry through the efforts of the non-profit
organization. "I believe that NABFEME can unite us so
that we all can all have and expect the same experience,"
says Wanda.
Wanda's career path that seemed more like
a roller coaster ride at times is one of resilience and inspiration.
She sums it up this way: A lifetime is made up of a string
of moments and the more special moments we have the more special
our life is.
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