A passion for
Dining and dogs When hunger strikes, students walk up to the food vendors run by SUU Dining Services. There are more options than ever before, something most students take for granted. But in an office hidden in the back of the Student Center, an SUU alumna runs around preparing for the next big thing. “I love event management, writing press releases, working with people,” Natasha Green, Marketing Manager for SUU Dining Services, said. “I love the back end, the front end, everything food service related.” In 2014, Green graduated with her degree in communication. Although she originally wanted to go into healthcare, she quickly realized that she couldn’t handle needles, and after a public speaking class, she decided to pursue communication. Ellen Treanor, Assistant Vice President for Brand Strategy, said that her first impression of Green was strong. “She was just this sponge, she wanted to learn everything,” Treanor said. “She held herself to such high standards. She took the lead in just about everything she did.” Treanor said that she loved Green’s work so much that she continued working with her outside of classes. “I ended up having her do the fiftieth birthday party for the man I was dating at the time,” Treanor said. “I thought
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‘I want to do something really nice,’ and then thought of Natasha. When it came time to have a wedding, I thought ‘Natasha!’ Actually, when there was a position open here in my office, she was the first person I called.” Green didn’t end up taking the job because she loved what she was doing with SUU Dining Services. Eight weeks into her job, Chick-fil-A opened, and Green was responsible for marketing the grand opening. “Chick-fil-A has been my pride and joy,” she said. “I was able to come up with all the promotions on my own, do all the grand opening stuff, tap into my resources. The grand opening plan that I came up with by myself is actually being used by other Chartwells accounts throughout the United States because it was so wellexecuted and because there were so many great ideas.” According to Treanor, the opening of Chick-fil-A was about as good as it gets. “The opening of Chick-fil-A was textbook, better than textbook, like real-world perfect,” Treanor said. “The level of creativity that she’s bringing to food service, because really, food service on campus can take a lot of hits, so I think she’s overcome all of that. She comes up with great contests and I think she’s a terrific event manager.” continued on the next page
