Clara Velásquez joined the WUWM team as our assistant director of communication. Clara is originally from Columbia in South America and has worked in Europe in various communication roles with IKEA and Volvo before later moving to Milwaukee.
After about two months in the role, Clara sat down with President and General Manager David Lee to further introduce herself.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
So, you've had some time to get to know the organization and the people here. What's the one thing that has surprised you the most about working here?
So far, there are many things that surprise me. [The] people come in very happy every day and with smiles. I also really recognize something that surprised me a lot, is the commitment. Everyone really believe in what we are doing here. And this commitment and this love that everyone puts into their work every day is still surprising me.
What are you most excited to take on over the next few months?
I want to help the station to be able to reach more people with those beautiful stories. We want to have a bigger community, invite more people and be more inclusive in all the possibilities regarding age, where people live and different attributes. So, I'm very excited to help the station to reach different places that we are not reaching yet.
What resonates with you the most about serving this incredible community and as you just mentioned, belonging to this incredible community?
I think we are in the right moment to talk about this. It's more important than ever. And for me, what is important is accountability. We have a responsibility. Everything that we say is to try and build trust and inform the community so people are able to make better decisions. And with that responsibility, we try to help people when they need to decide whatever they have to decide. So, I think we are very focused and very clear in what our responsibility is, which is our accountability. And Yours. Truly. has this goal to show everyone how responsible we feel about the work that we do here.
