2019 College Report

College of Fine Arts and Communication spotl ight story for communi cat ion studi es College Report 2019 26 27 spotl ight story for journal i sm and mas s communi cat ion XAPONTIC BEAUTY BRAND Mexico NORMA LUJÁN Alumna Journalism and Mass Communication North Jungle of Chiapas by T.Cay Rowe KRISTAL GAULT Alumna Communication Studies AIR FORCE CIVILIAN SERVICE Public Affairs - Media Operations United States Air Force by T.Cay Rowe Joint Base Andrews the host nation from another, Defense from another. As communicators we have to fnd the point of intersection where we are all working toward the common goal.” No day is ever the same as the last, however. She is reminded of the “fve craziest weeks of my life.” She was stationed in Germany and was in the middle of a weeks’ long, 24-hours-a- day exercise with Israel, when a train from Amsterdam to Paris was attacked by a terrorist. Tree men wrestled the terrorist to the foor, and it turned out that one of the heroes was active duty Air Force. “Tis was certainly a diferent type of crisis communication than we normally deal with! Within hours of the incident, I found myself on a train to Paris to meet our Airman at the American Ambassador’s house, where I had the honor of prepping the heroes for their media engagements and facilitating the press conferences.” Back in Germany, she had one day before heading to Poland, where she led the communication eforts with NATO allies at the peak of Russian aggression following the illegal annexation of Crimea. “I have been to about 30 countries and as many states, and wherever I go, I will know someone. Tat’s because the military is so transient. I get the experience of those diferent places, but also a touch of home." “Once I was at the White House and struck up a conversation with another communications person. Te talk came around to ‘where did you go to school?’ I said Texas State and he said ‘Me, too!’ It’s a testament to the quality of the university’s communications program that I fnd alumni all over the world.” ■ Norma Luján’s degree in Advertising (B.A. 1999) has taken her to jobs around the world and now to the rainforests of Chiapas in southern Mexico. “It catapulted me into a wonderful career,” she says. Norma came to Texas State from Chihuahua, Mexico. “I heard about [Texas State’s] reputation in mass communication and knew I had to go there. Of course I fell in love with the campus right away, and I knew I belonged there.” She was intrigued that Texas State's mass communication academic curriculum was designed for students who want to develop a lifelong commitment to the responsibilities and privileges of being mass communicators in a multicultural, global society. She worked in the university’s ofce that did its publications and media relations on the work-study program, and she was part of the university’s team at the National Student Advertising Competition that took on the Hallmark account that year. From San Marcos, she went to San Antonio, which she describes as “the Mecca for Hispanic advertising at that time,” and landed a job with a PR frm handling the Mary Kay account. “As I traveled with some of the company’s executives, I watched carefully what the clients did, and I wanted to be like them.” She believed she needed more exposure to the business side of the beauty industry, so she picked up an M.A. in Administration at the University of the Incarnate Word. New York City was her goal (“but it’s everybody else’s too!”) and particularly L’Oreal, the No. 1 beauty brand in the world. She knew she had to work on her portfolio to get in the door at L’Oreal so she took a job at Ales Group, where she relaunched a luxury haircare brand that took her to meetings with the likes of Sephora and Neiman Marcus. L’Oreal took notice and hired her as its global marketing manager and ultimately its multicultural marketing director. Tere she was able to take brands full cycle – from concept to development to marketing to pricing and sales. “I worked alongside people from Ivy League schools, and there was absolutely no diference in our skill sets. I never felt like I was not prepared to compete with them.” Along her career path, Norma learned French (she speaks four languages) and earned a certifcate in perfumery at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and credentials in fashion styling in Milan and New York. Today she has her own consulting frm, Libellule & Lavande (English: Dragonfy & Lavender) that specializes in marketing beauty, fragrance and fashion. Always a traveler back and forth to Mexico where her family lives, she recently felt a call to do something for the community. She says she continues to discover things about her own country and one of her explorations brought her into contact with Yomol A’tel, a group of companies formed by the indigenous families in Chiapas whose stated goal is to “work for social justice and the defense of their territory.” Norma works with 37 Mayan women in the jungle of southern Mexico to enhance the beauty brand Xapontic, which is already on the market. “It’s a diferent side of marketing for me, involving fair trade and co-ops. “But working with these women has also changed my life. I’m a better person for it.” ■ Heavily infuenced by her family’s history of military service, Kristal Gault (B.A. 2003, M.A. 2008) decided early on that she wanted a career that linked her to the military culture. While she knew that the uniformed service was not for her, she says she still wanted to be part of that culture. So she picked Texas State for her degrees in Communication Studies before embarking on her career in the Air Force Civilian Service. Communication Studies involves examining the creation, expression, and analysis of the messages we receive every day and investigate communication processes as they occur within and among individuals, groups, organizations and societies. Her resume is also flled with other higher education from the Air Force at Air University in Alabama and Defense Information School in Maryland. Her early career took her to one of the most exciting places on the Air Force’s map – Joint Base Andrews near the nation’s capital. “Air Force One fies out of there, as do planes carrying other world leaders. It’s the site of high-visibility news conferences as well as solemn occasions like the return of the fallen from wars. It’s always a beehive of communications activity.” “I wanted to have a job with service connected to it,” she says. “I’ve always admired the ethical standard that comes with public service.” Her job always includes internal communications, community outreach, crisis communications, media engagement, and spokesperson coaching. Another job is trying to make sure all of the players are on the same page. “It’s sometimes a challenge because everyone has an agenda. Te State Department, say, is coming from one direction,