WUWM has been serving the Milwaukee area for over 60 years. In recognition of that, we hosted a series of events celebrating our 60th birthday. That work was spearheaded by our marketing department, led by marketing manager Anna Stratton.
To celebrate the work that we do, we're chatting with some of the people who do it. And for this segment of our Get to Know WUWM series, we sit down with Anna to learn more about her work, the projects she's most proud of and why she loves Milwaukee so much.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
So, I'd like to get into some of what your day-to-day looks like versus more of a long-term view of your work.
Sure. I'll start with the long-term view and then kind of drill down into more granular stuff. So, broadly speaking, my role is to drive awareness of the radio station to new and current audiences, to help garner support for the radio station — financial, just an affinity for us, that kind of thing. Daily that looks highly variable, like planning large scale events like Doors Open for example. I also do a lot of our email marketing, so whenever we're sending emails out to people, I work to help support that. I work really closely with the digital team, so figuring out how and what we share on socials.
Can you speak to how our work aligns with your personal motivations and your core values?
So, throughout my career, I've done really all mission driven work. I have worked in nonprofits, mostly in the higher education space. I've worked for universities before as well. The piece that was always missing for me was the ability to really feel like I'm making a direct, tangible impact on people's lives. And so when this opportunity came up, I felt like this opportunity was one in which I would be able to more directly impact people on a local level. My hope was that I'd be able to do something more close to that through this work.
From some of the other places that you've worked in and that you've resided in, can you speak a little bit more about what makes Milwaukee and what makes that UWM uniquely different?
I think Milwaukee offers a lot. It's such a vibrant city. There's just a lot of life here. There's a lot to do. We've got the beautiful art museum here, the libraries, all the architecture here. Even just doing like a walking tour of the city just to see all of the really neat old architecture. It's just a really pretty, pretty place to be.
