Griz Paths Returns with Marketing and Social Media Alumni Stories

What does it take to build an audience, tell a compelling story and turn online engagement into a career? On Wednesday, Sept. 9, Griz Paths returns and will bring University of Montana community together for a virtual conversation on the ever-changing social media and influencer marketing landscape. The free event is open to UM students, alumni and friends from noon to 1 p.m., panelists will share candid perspectives on their professional journeys and the skills behind effective, authentic communication online. Click here to sign up for Griz Paths.

The UM Alumni Association spoke with our guests before the event to get a better grasp on who they are.

Lily Stefani ’19: From Curiosity to Campaign Strategy

When Lily Stefani ’19 joined L’Oréal’s Professional Products Division as assistant manager of paid social, the role felt surreal. “It’s definitely a pinch-me moment,” she says. Her path to the global beauty company, however, wasn’t the standard marketing trajectory. Stefani majored in Women, Gender and Sexuality studies at UM, taught herself marketing fundamentals and steadily built professional connections that moved her forward.

Stefani grew up in New Jersey before moving with her family to Colorado, and later Bozeman. UM appealed for its liberal-arts expertise, outdoor opportunities and Missoula community. Her college years were shaped by profound personal circumstances: her father became ill during her first year and died while she was a junior. As many peers considered life after graduation, she was managing family loss and uncertainty about her own direction.

Before college, Stefani volunteered in victims’ rights advocacy, an interest she continued through her major and coursework in feminist theory and sociology. But after graduation, as she explored opportunities in her original field, another interest began to emerge: fashion, beauty, consumer culture and the art of reaching people with a product.
She took a management position at The Loft Spa in Bozeman. When she noticed the business needed social-media support, she asked to help.

“This is something I want to do on a larger scale,” she recalls thinking.

Through LinkedIn, coffee chats, phone calls, Zoom meetings and conversations with friends, she began building a network and gathering practical advice.

“Not every one’s going to write you back,” she says. “Not everyone’s going to give you the time of day, but you need to be persistent and you need to not let that discourage you.”

One connection led to an entry-level account coordinator role at Location3, a Denver-based marketing agency. There, Stefani pursued Google and LinkedIn courses, asked colleagues questions and looked for opportunities to take on more responsibility. She treated the role as an education in itself.

Today, her work involves planning and building campaigns across platforms such as Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit; choosing audience targets and ad creative; monitoring budgets; assessing results; and making recommendations for future campaigns. Paid social is the strategic placement of paid advertising rather than the day-to-day management of a brand’s own accounts.

The ads that appear in a social-media feed may seem simple, but Stefani sees the coordination behind them.
“There is so much detail that goes into every single one of these,” she says. “There are so many moving parts.”

 

Bailey Chauner ’14: Creating the Opportunity

Before “influencer” became a marketing job title, Bailey Chauner ’14 was helping create a space for student style, storytelling and entrepreneurship at UM. Today, as senior social media manager at Redfin, she sees the early instincts behind that project as foundational to a career built at the meeting point of strategy and creativity.

Chauner grew up in Whitefish, where competitive gymnastics, dance, tennis, cheerleading and cross-country shaped an energetic childhood. She began college at Montana State University as a marketing major but transferred to UM to pursue a more creative version of that education. She earned a marketing degree with a minor in media arts in 2014, drawn by the chance to pair business skills with graphic design and basic film editing.

At UM, Chauner helped launch Trendsetters at U, a student group and fashion blog created with a fellow business-school student. It began with fashion posts about game-day outfits, campus style and changing seasons at a moment when fashion blogging was only beginning to gain momentum.

“Influencer was not a word in the marketing world,” she says. “It was really more about expressing yourself and also pairing it with storytelling.”

After graduation, Chauner moved to Seattle, eager to experience a larger city and pursue her interest in fashion and marketing. In the Emerald City, she began on the floor at Nordstrom’s flagship store while making professional connections wherever she could: coffee meetings, networking events and introductions through the UM community.
That persistence led her to a contract role at Microsoft, where she spent roughly two years planning technical events, including developer gatherings and hackathons. The work brought unexpected opportunities to travel internationally, including to Taiwan, China and France. It also gave her more chances to exercise the marketing skills she had hoped to use professionally.

“Trendsetters at U was on my résumé at that time and really helped me stand out as a self-starter who was motivated,” she says.

When her Microsoft contract ended, Chauner joined Redfin in an SEO role. Over time, she moved into social media, where her marketing and media-arts training converged. Her creative background—especially graphic design and video editing – was a particular advantage before user-friendly tools made content production more accessible.
Chauner now leads social-media work at Redfin, a role she describes as both creative and highly strategic. The field has changed dramatically since she graduated. Social media was once viewed as a low-stakes or largely free channel; now it’s a central part of integrated marketing campaigns.

“Social media has become a much more strategic, advanced and valued channel,” Chauner says. The familiar joke that “the intern does our TikTok,” she adds, misses the point. Social campaigns require audience knowledge, business objectives, creative decisions and an understanding of what can be measured –and what cannot.
“Social media is fun, it’s creative, and it also is more complicated,” she added.

Martyna Nowak ’10: A Career Built on Persistence

Martyna Nowak ’10 has spent nearly 15 years building a career around the things she knows best: sports, entertainment and the fast-moving world of social media. Now director of social media at Tim Hortons, part of RBI International, Nowak leads strategy for one of Canada’s most recognizable brands. Her path began far from a corporate office, on the tennis courts of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

A competitive tennis player in high school, Nowak was looking at scholarship opportunities when she added UM to her list. A recruiting visit to Missoula made a lasting impression. She received a full scholarship and joined the Griz tennis team, balancing the demanding schedules of a student-athlete while earning a business degree. “Freshman year was just about keeping my head above water and finding my footing,” she says. By graduation in 2010, she felt deeply connected to Missoula and the people around her. “Overall, it was the best four years of my life.”

While at UM, Nowak began defining a future beyond competitive tennis. She knew she wanted to work in sports or music, fields that combined business with the energy of entertainment. She added a minor in entertainment management, taking part in a program that brought industry professionals to campus and gave students a closer view of possible careers. “That program specifically helped me a lot just to feel a little bit more guided across what I was going to do when I was graduating,” she says.

After graduation, Nowak submitted more than 100 applications while trying to establish herself professionally. An initial internship with the Toronto International Film Festival led to a full-time opportunity at Tennis Canada, where she worked for five years. She later spent time at an entertainment agency, worked with Adidas and Reebok, and ultimately became head of social media for the Women’s Tennis Association, or WTA.

“I had a personal mandate of, ‘I will not sit in an office for eight hours and work on something I’m not passionate about,’” Nowak says. “I really, really wanted to work in tennis.”

The determination showed up in practical ways: internships, informational interviews, phone calls and persistent outreach to anyone who might share advice or offer an opportunity.

Nowak’s move into social media began at Tennis Canada, where maintaining a Facebook page was often simply one task within a broader marketing role. She volunteered for it, sensing that social platforms would become increasingly important for brands. Her experience as both a tennis expert and a developing digital strategist made her a strong fit for the WTA.

At Tim Hortons, Nowak applies that experience to a brand operating at national scale. She describes social media as the most connective marketing channel available: a place where people discover, learn about and interact with brands. Yet she is quick to challenge the notion that social media management is simply posting photographs or chasing trends. Behind each piece of content are editorial calendars, data reports, crisis monitoring, multiple rounds of editing, legal review and collaboration with teams across public relations, operations and brand strategy.
“Anyone can learn it,” Nowak says, “but I do think there is a level of strategic thinking and understanding of audiences – what consumers will respond to – that is often underestimated.” The role requires creativity, sound judgment, and analytical fluency – especially when explaining why a campaign performed well or making the case for a particular idea.

For Nowak, staying current also requires a professional version of an everyday habit: spending time online.
“There is no shortcut,” she says. “The only way you can understand TikTok trends and understand certain vernacular about social is to spend a lot of time on social.” Her work asks her to follow culture closely, then make thoughtful decisions about when a brand should participate and when it shouldn’t.

Emma Hill ’21: Building Brands Beyond the Post

For Emma Hill ’21, a career in sports social media started with a love of athletics long before it became a job title. Growing up in Spokane, Washington, she played soccer and softball through high school and followed sports closely. Her connection to UM also started early: her mother cheered for the Grizzlies as a student, planting the seed for a future in Missoula.

She graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and an emphasis in criminology. Her time at UM is marked by the moments that make a college town memorable: floating the Clark Fork River with friends, cheering at football games, grabbing Bridge Pizza and building friendships that remain central to her college experience.
After graduation, she moved to Phoenix and spent about a year working in child protective services. She then joined Arizona State University, overseeing K–12 campus experiences and engagement. That role introduced her to ASU’s Sports Law and Business program, which she entered while considering where a sociology degree – and a lifelong interest in sports – could lead.

The crucial connection came through the program, where she met the CEO of Content Capital Group, a social media agency that develops brand strategy for professional athletes. She joined the agency as an unpaid intern and spent roughly four years advancing through its ranks, eventually becoming a social media manager. Today, she is head of social at Sun Day Red, Tiger Woods’ apparel brand.

“There is so much time ahead of you to work,” she says. “Make sure it’s something you truly enjoy and are passionate about.”

Sports and social media make for a particularly fast-paced combination.

“It truly is nonstop,” she says. Both industries operate around the clock, and the workload can be demanding. But the payoff is immediate and meaningful: social media teams can help shape and grow an athlete’s or brand’s public identity.

“It’s super rewarding knowing you’re able to directly impact and grow someone’s name, image and likeness,” she says.

Creativity, she says, is essential. Teams must develop a steady stream of distinct ideas for short- and long-term campaigns, drawing inspiration from trends while adapting them to the specific athlete or brand. The best social-media managers also find ways to extend the value of limited material.

“Take whatever content or footage you have, even if it’s only one video,” she says, “and see how much you can possibly squeeze out of it.”

For students interested in the field, she recommends building both creative and analytical skills. Basic familiarity with tools such as Photoshop, CapCut, Canva and Prequel can make content production easier. Just as important is learning to interpret performance data across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, Threads and other platforms.
Her job-search advice is practical: keep a résumé clean, concise and free of typos; become involved through student groups, volunteering, Greek life or clubs; and treat networking as a long-term investment. She encourages students to identify someone at an organization on LinkedIn and send a brief message expressing genuine interest in the role and company.

Tyler Morgan ’16: Finding the Story Behind the Scroll

For Tyler Morgan ’16, a career in social media and marketing grew from a combination of experiences: music, communication studies, law, online communities and a willingness to help wherever he was needed.
Born and raised in Missoula, Morgan graduated from Hellgate High School in 2011 before enrolling at UM that fall on a vocal performance scholarship.

After taking a year away from school to live in Bigfork and southern Australia, he returned to UM and began studying in the Communication Studies Department. He graduated with an emphasis in interpersonal communication and a certificate in entertainment management. He then continued at UM, earning his law degree in 2019.
Morgan’s memories of the University are closely tied to the people and places that made Missoula home. He enjoyed showing friends from outside Montana around his hometown, presenting at conferences on behalf of the University and attending Griz games.

After law school, Morgan clerked for the federal bankruptcy court in Spokane for three years. He returned to Montana intending to continue practicing law, but an unexpected opportunity shifted his career in a new direction. He joined TIMEPieces, an art and community initiative affiliated with TIME Magazine, where he worked as an artist and community manager until 2023.

That experience led to a position with Cool Cats, an animation and illustration company. Morgan began as a social media manager and community lead before eventually moving into a marketing-lead role. In March 2026, he joined Aztec as a social media manager and would go on to become the company’s marketing manager.

He describes the current social-media landscape as relentlessly busy. The amount of content published each day continues to grow, while audiences’ attention spans have become shorter. At the same time, online audiences can be inconsistent: users may be surprisingly forgiving in some situations and intensely unforgiving in others.
For social media managers, that means staying alert is part of the job. Morgan has been “chronically online” for decades, but professional social media work requires more than simply being familiar with the internet. It requires understanding an audience and tracking conversations.

The preparation for a post includes market research, monitoring trends, learning a product well enough to explain it to others and writing copy compelling enough to earn attention in an increasingly crowded feed. Even then, results are never guaranteed. Some posts Morgan creates in a matter of seconds perform extremely well, while carefully developed content may receive little engagement.

“That’s hard to swallow after a long-worked post gets no traction,” he says.

Morgan believes social media professionals must continually learn skills outside their initial areas of expertise. They may need to understand a new industry, communicate complex ideas, experiment with new formats or find a creative angle for a subject that initially seems dull. The ability to cut through what he calls “slop on the feed” is crucial to reaching new audiences.

Morgan is also interested in the growing role of artificial intelligence and automated tools. Students who use AI to assist with content should understand how it produces its recommendations and remain in control of the process. AI should remain a tool rather than become a substitute for judgment, creativity or expertise.

Morgan expects agentic tools – systems that can automate tasks such as gathering analytics or identifying relevant content – to become increasingly important. Used well, those tools could help social media managers monitor more information without losing time that could be spent on strategy and creative work.

His advice to students entering the workforce is straightforward: be willing to help wherever help is needed. Assignments outside a job description can reveal interests and abilities that may not otherwise emerge. Morgan discovered that he enjoyed project management after volunteering to help organize external projects, even though his official role focused on social media.

Morgan also wishes he had understood sooner how widely applicable the skills developed through Communication Studies could be. At its core, he says, nearly every job depends on how effectively a person can communicate ideas.