Have you met Melissa, Digital Planning and Development Lead for Advancement Strategic Communications? Spend the next few minutes getting to know her a little better.
Where is your favourite place on campus?
I’ve worked at three different campuses — Enterprise Square, the hospital, and main campus. Out of all of those places, my favourite place is South Rutherford Library. I really like the 5th and 6th floors there.
Tablet or paper?
Tablet. It’s more organized for me. I like the idea of paper. Sometimes writing things out is nice, but at the end of the day I’m a very digital person.
Name one thing you’ve brought to work from home.
I keep a humidifier at my desk — that’s very telling about what kind of person I am. I also have a photo of my niece. Those are really the only things I have at my desk other than my computer. I’m very minimal.
What is the one thing you can’t live without?
Really bad reality TV. 90 Day Fiancé is my all-time favourite. It’s such a train wreck. It’s my favourite thing to watch when I’m decompressing.
If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Antarctica. It’s very expensive and I’ve always wanted to go. I’m obsessed with the Arctic.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
Margaret Hamilton — the woman who coded the Apollo missions. I think it would be so cool to talk about building code by hand. I’ve never done that before. I think it’s cool that she wrote all this code out by hand and it worked. That is the highest level of genius.
If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?
I would love to work at the Saville Centre and work in recreation for a while. I really like running and sports. I think it would be really cool to work in an environment like that. Something like a Professor of Kinesiology.
What does “uplifting the whole people” mean to you?
I’ve always thought of it as supporting well-rounded futures and careers. Even just disciplines of study and being able to have a really enriching experience during your time on campus. One of the things I love about working on campus is that you get not only a really great job, you get benefits like community and opportunities.
If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?
Climate change. CO2 level is my biggest anxiety. Reversing climate change would be my number one. Or at least stop it and eventually decrease it.
What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?
Varied — I feel like I’ve been able to do so much. When I started my degree I was a Neuroscience Honors student, then I switched into Philosophy and Computing, and I built my career into digital communications, coding, and web design off of that, and now I’m in a niche marketing job.
Unpredictable — did I ever think this would happen? No!
And Fun — I’ve been a student, staff, volunteer, donor, alum; I feel like I’ve done everything. I didn’t think I’d ever be here this long, but I love it!
Melissa Fabrizio has a wide range of experience in communications, web design, event coordination, and public relations. In her current role as Digital Planning and Development Lead, Melissa has played an integral role in developing and implementing digital strategies that have significantly grown online engagement. Melissa is a UAlberta alumna and has been working on campus (in the Office of Advancement, Faculty of Education, and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry) since graduating. When she isn’t building websites, she enjoys photography and going for long river valley runs.