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Action Coordinator Spotlight


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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