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 ‘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 and Treanor in 2014.

Photo courtesy Natasha Green

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.”

Since then, Green has organized the openings of Thunder Pops, Fat Zeus, Porkbellys and Purple Oasis, as well as the rebranding of Crisp as Sono and Chartwells to SUU Dining Services. However, she has participated in other aspects of food service besides communication.

“I love that I’ve been able to learn how to make coffee and drop fries; I’m a Starbucks barista or Chick-fil-A employee without wearing the apron,” she said. “I’ve been able to go to Google six different times, and experience Google campus and learn how they do things and get an insight into one of the largest companies in the world.”

Green during a trip to Google.

Photo courtesy Natasha Green

This fall, Green’s work was recognized by the Compass group, the parent organization of Chartwells, when she was awarded Associate of the Year for Community. There were approximately 10,000 associates in the western region that were eligible for the award.

“My boss knew about it for a month and he didn’t tell me,” Green said. “We were doing this big web call with all of the west region around the time the awards were coming out. I’m sitting there watching their presentation and it pops up with my name, and I said ‘Come again for Big Fudge, what? Really, this is real?’ and my boss said ‘Yeah, this is real.’”

Although she is happy with the decision now, when Green first decided to pursue communication, her mother wasn’t too sure about the idea.

“She said, ‘Natasha, you’re never going to be able to get a job,’” Green said. “‘You’re going to be like an artist, you’re just going to sit on the couch, you’re not going to do anything.’”

After Green graduated, there were no available communication jobs, so she worked at Zions Bank for a year. In July 2015, Treanor called Natasha and told her about the Marketing Manager position at Chartwells, now known as SUU DIning Services.

““I sent in my stuff and former Director of Dining Jory Corsi brought me in for an interview,” Green said. “He offered me the job on the spot because there were no other applicants and he liked my passion. And, lucky for me, I’m still here.”

A promotional image for the Chick-fil-A opening.

Photo courtesy Natasha Green

After getting the Marketing Manager job, Green called her mom to tell her the news.

“To this day, my mom eats her words because I’ve been able to do so much with my degree,” Green said, laughing. “I credit it a lot to working for Chartwells and being a member of the Compass Group because I’ve had so many different opportunities. I’ve been able to do trainings at Google, I’ve been able to travel all the way from Chicago to California doing different focus groups and events, working corporate-wide.”

Treanor said that communication is a versatile degree, and there is no need to fear that a job won’t be available.

“Communication can lead you to so many places,” Treanor said. “There’s every kind of job in every industry, everyone has someone in communication. All the problems of society can be solved with better communication to a certain extent. And maybe foot massages.”

When she’s not managing SUU Dining Services, Green runs an Instagram account for her two bulldogs, Ruby and Garnet.

“My husband and I will be married for five years this August, and I refuse to have children yet because I’m just not ready and don’t want to give up my career,” Green said. “I’m scared of being a mom, and it’s so pushed in Utah culture. My husband and I have always wanted a French bulldog, so we ended up getting Ruby in November 2015.”

The original Instagram account was created just for Ruby, but the Greens eventually decided to get another dog because Ruby had separation anxiety. One night, Green’s husband showed her a picture of an English bulldog that was available for adoption.

Photo by Melissa Hill

“He ended up calling this lady without me knowing and put a deposit on (Garnet) because he knew that I would come around eventually,” Green said. “Later the next afternoon, I decided to do it.”

Both dogs were named after gems, and Green said that if they get another dog, they will name him Peridot and call him Peri.

“My dogs are my pride and joy, they are my children,” she said. “I love them so much. I’m the crazy dog mom and I totally live up to that.”

Green was inspired to create the Instagram after she found out that her sister-in-law had an account for her giant schnauzer. Since she had so many photos of her dogs on her camera roll, Green figured it would be a great place to post them.

Over the years, sh has built the account to over 1,600 followers, and she has been able to make friends through it.

“I was sitting in the Costco parking lot one day and the dogs were sitting in my lap. My window was down and all of a sudden I heard ‘Natasha, is that you?’” Green said. “I looked across and it was this girl that lives in St. George that also has a Frenchie that I had become friends with. She recognized me with the dogs and she came over to introduce herself. She knew me via Instagram, and it’s so fun to make those connections.”

Through both work and fun, Green has been able to develop her communication skills. Although she doesn’t plan to leave SUU Dining Services anytime soon, Green’s ultimate goal is to become a Communication Specialist for Intermountain Healthcare.

“I’ve made a lot of connections on campus and they have benefited my career and my life,” Green said. “I love my team, I love my campus and I love what I do.”

Ruby & Garnet by the numbers

1,600+ followers on instagram

340 photos and videos that could induce a cuteness overload

122 posts tagged to #GreenBulldogGems

90 percent of photos not using a filter

~70 likes per photo (based on the 20 most recent posts)