Ask yourself:
What do Marketing, Sports, Social Media, and Athletic Administration have in common with Dating?
We weren’t sure of the answer until we met up with Tracie Hitz.
1993 Peoria Notre Dame High School graduate, Tracie Hitz, did not play varsity sports. While she was a life-long soccer enthusiast, Hitz gravitated to writing, especially after working at hometown newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star. Hitz earned a communication and journalism degree from Truman State followed by an Integrated Marketing Communications Master’s Degree from Northwestern. Tracie applied her education by advancing from a marketing assistant to the Associate Athletic Director of Sales and Marketing in the Northwestern Athletic Department for 13 years, leading to a position as the NCAA Director of Business Operations for Women’s Basketball through the spring of 2018.
Hitz is also the CEO of Hitz & Branding, a firm specializing in strategic approaches to personalized and professional branding, an out-growth of her decades-long work dedicated to developing interpersonal relationships via dating.
Combining her passions, Tracie also consults for the NCAA by running the Women’s Basketball Advancement Program, providing marketing advice to 350 schools via Facebook Live events, blog posts, video calls, and webinars, and she also developed and implemented the first Women’s Basketball Workshop at a National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Convention.
Hitz works with the commissioner of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference regarding fundraising, alumni outreach, and web-work, and was a featured speaker at the July 2018 Big East Conference Women’s Basketball Summit.
Tracie Hitz knows that joining a strong reputation to strategic communication leads to success in life, and in love, both on and off the court.
Until next time, for Stories Beyond the Scores, I’m Chris Reynolds.
Resources:
“Sportswriters #66: Local girl done good.” Kirk Wessler. Peoria Journal Star. May 25, 2017.
Tracie Hitz. LinkedIn, 2018.
“Pilot program aims to grow women’s basketball” October 10, 2017. NCAA.
