March 8th is International Women’s Day, and we are celebrating at GreenCup Digital!
As a women-owned and women-led business, we believe that diversity builds relationships, promotes innovation, and strengthens the digital marketing industry everywhere! We know we can achieve anything when we work together instead of against each other.
To honor this special day, I am taking over the blog to highlight some of the kick-ass women of GreenCup Digital.
Carly DeVries
Carly has been part of the team for just a little over a year, and we aren’t quite sure how we kept things together before she got here. As project manager for our Website and SEO clients, Carly thrives on processes and timelines, and if you don’t check off your to-do by the due date, you’ll undoubtedly be hearing from her. Carly has been involved in websites and e-commerce since your hardest decision in life was your AIM screen name. She also worked at a dance studio, grocery store, coffee shop, underwear store, bank, and restaurant before graduating from college. A graduate of Michigan State University with a BA in Advertising, Carly was born in Grand Rapids but has had addresses in East Lansing, Detroit, and Chicago, before boomeranging back home.
Carly loves spending time with her husband and two kids, who teach her humility every day. She’s a certified beach bum but, more importantly, a Certified Yoga Teacher. We can count on Carly for a good laugh and to make sure we take a good stretch break when meetings start to get a little too long.
Anne DiVitto
Another team member born and raised in Grand Rapids, Anne holds multiple roles at GreenCup Digital. When stars aligned, I met Anne at a local networking group in 2018. We hit it off right away, comparing notes about our similar paths, and decided we wanted to work together. Anne has been assisting our small business clients in learning how to use social media to their advantage ever since! In addition to being a social media strategy expert, Anne is adept at content writing. She has recently taken on a new role at GreenCup Digital acting as the project manager for our social media and content clients.
Anne graduated from Calvin College with a BA in Business Administration with a plan to be a banker or a stockbroker, but quickly realized that it was super dull and stressful at the same time! Instead, she began a 20+ career in technology, starting with an accounting temp position at an ERP software company. This quickly transitioned into a full-time job in Technical Support. From there, Anne had a front-row seat to the dot-com boom in 2000 when working at a website management firm in downtown Chicago. After that, she returned to West Michigan and held a position in corporate healthcare IT implementing and supporting the billing software of a large regional healthcare organization. Anne said, “See Ya!” to the corporate grind in 2016 to start freelancing as a self-taught digital marketing guru along with building simple websites to help “mom-prenuers” sell their products and services.
Outside of the tech world, Anne is a wife and a mom to 2 exceptional children. She is a boat girl who loves to spoil her two Labrador Retrievers with trips to the beach. And she also serves as one half of the website and social media personality Grand Rapids Girl showcasing all the good, fun, and delicious in our grand city! Tip: Sign up for their newsletter to keep up on the latest happenings.
Kendra Higgins
Most of our clients know Kendra as a multitasking superstar who can design and develop a website while strategizing a marketing plan like nobody’s business. She comes by that talent honestly after spending most of her high school and college years freelancing and graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Technology. Kendra has held many titles in her career, including Director of Marketing, Adjunct Instructor, and Lead Designer. She was also nominated for Northwest Ottawa County Top 20 under 40 in 2015 & 2016. A natural at teaching others not to be afraid of the power of marketing, she enjoys leading marketing workshops and event sessions, including a presentation at GROW’s “Entrepreneur You” conference and GreenCup Digital’s own “Adapting Your Website In A Time Of Crisis” webinar.
Kendra started working with GreenCup Digital in 2017 as the lead web designer and developer. But she really shines when helping our clients bring everything together in a digital marketing strategy to help their business grow and succeed. Naturally, we recently promoted Kendra to the role of Director of Customer Experience and Marketing.
When Kendra isn’t decoding tech for our clients, she is busy raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and honeybees on her farm, Henstooth Homestead. Kendra and her partner Rich raise and grow most of their own food on the farm. If you are lucky, you might hear the rooster crow while in a virtual meeting! I’d also highly recommend requesting a carton of eggs if you have an in-person meeting with her.
Joanna Chulick
And finally, a little bit about me, Joanna. I am Michigan born but have lived in multiple places, including spending most of my childhood in Las Vegas and teen years in Kentucky. I returned to Michigan to attend Michigan State University, where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Merchandise Management. If I wasn’t attending classes, you could usually find me in my dorm room playing on social media platforms before it was called social media and teaching myself basic HTML code. I built a personal website that shared photos and moments from nights out with friends. (Yup, pretty sure I invented Facebook! Where’s my check, Mark?) After graduation, my career started in retail store management and then moved to the corporate level working in Buying and Inventory Management. My last “real” job had me traveling overseas to Hong Kong 4 times a year as an Apparel Sourcing Manager to meet with vendors and negotiate costing.
While all this was happening, I kept an eye on the latest technology and continued to learn about social media and how websites work. In 2017, I took a chance and left the traditional job market to start CATKAM media, LLC. We focused on helping small businesses with their social media and simple websites. I became aware of the fantastic opportunity to purchase the already established and successful website services company GreenCup Digital Design from Veronica Kirin in 2018. After getting settled in, GreenCup Digital was born! I am proud of where we have come since then and looking forward to continued success with my fantastic team.
When I’m not sitting in front of a computer or spoiling my two cats, you can usually find me hiking the Lake Michigan shore or sitting on a patio at a brewery sipping a Michigan craft beer. I love to travel and am very anxious to get back to a regular schedule of visiting family and friends across the country and overseas too!
“The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’” – Admiral Grace Hooper
While this doesn’t cover all the amazing women and men on our team, I hope you enjoyed meeting the 4 of us. International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and is also a day for challenging the gender stereotypes and gender imbalances that still exist in our world. As women in tech, we meet these challenges head-on and strive to act as role models in our community to help forge a gender equal world.
