Alumna thrives professionally, as a mother

A mother of two has enough to handle; many women do not take on the extra stress of keeping up with a career. However, for Amanda Keefer, a Point Park University alum, the case is quite the opposite.            

Originally from California, Pa., Keefer started at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998, but she left just a year later.

"I think coming from such a small town, Pitt was very overwhelming to me," Keefer said at her house in November.

After speaking to friends, she decided to give Point Park a try in 1999. She seemed to fit right in, and loved the close relationships she was able to make with some of her professors, such as Bob O'Gara and Helen Fallon. She also formed a close relationship with former director of alumni relations, Nina Margiatta.

At Point Park, she majored in journalism and mass communications and became heavily involved with the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA). During her time at Point Park, she also took part in the work study program in the Alumni Affairs and Development Department.

Keefer participated in the Walt Disney World and Resorts College Program in 1999. She worked at Blizzard Beach in quick service food and beverage. After completing this program, she knew she wanted to move back to Orlando, Fl. after graduating in 2002. 

After a fruitless job search, Keefer and some friends just decided to pick up and move to Orlando anyway.

A few months later, she finally found a promising opportunity. A man she had met a few years before gave her the contact information for a woman who worked at the Kennedy Space Center.

"I emailed the name, and she must have forwarded it on to someone else," Keefer said.

About a month later, she got an email about a position as the public relations representative at the Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Center. She went in for an interview the very next day.

"They liked that I had experience with Disney," Keefer said. "I went in and interviewed and did a writing test, and then they called for a second interview, and I got the job."

Keefer lived over an hour away from the Kennedy Space Center, but she did what she had to do and commuted every day.

"I knew I had to make it work. I knew if I had this on my resume, everything else would fall into place," Keefer said.

After commuting for two years, she decided to move on to the next stage in her life when her manager quit. A reporter she worked with knew of a job opening at a public relations and advertising company in Orlando called Y Partnership. There, she landed a position that dealt with travel and leisure clients. During her time there, she traveled to London and the Caribbean as well as numerous other places and hosted press trips.

"[Traveling] was great and totally different from what I was doing," Keefer said.

Kathy Hernandez, who is currently the president of her own advertising and public relations firm, hired Keefer for her first position at Y Partnership.

"Amanda is extremely professional … and is very dedicated to what she does," Hernandez said through email when asked why she hired Keefer. "She presents herself very well and has one of the strongest work ethic I have ever known."

Keefer chose to leave Y Partnership when she decided to settle down and start a family with her husband, Marcus Muniz. She moved on to consultations. During this time, it was important to Keefer to maintain her reputation. She created a blog, themammamiablog.com, which focuses on helping to make parents' lives easier. She writes mostly about local family-friendly events and happenings in Orlando. Occasionally, companies will have Keefer write for them on her blog to promote them.

In addition to her freelance blogging, she began writing for Playground, a quarterly magazine that puts a focus on parents in Florida during her time off. Keefer writes an article when the editor assigns her a story or she can pitch an idea.

After two years, Keefer decided to return to Y Partnership, but this time in a position with even more responsibilities.

"I had some say in when I could travel, but it got to be a lot, and it was more travel than I wanted to be doing," Keefer said.

A few years later, when she had her second child, she began looking for a new job. That is when she found a job with Produce for Kids, an organization on the PRSSA website.

This virtual position offered the amount of flexibility Keefer needed. She landed her current position as manager of public relations and social media this past February.

Produce for Kids is a not for profit organization that is "a year round healthy resource for parents," Keefer said.

Additionally, they have two annual campaigns, with one being at participating grocery stores, a percentage of money from the purchase of certain products goes to the Children's Miracle Foundation. The other campaign is called Ideal Meals. With this, the organization offers recipe cards to help parents make healthy, affordable meals for their families.