On Monday night, Scripps PRSSA welcomed Ohio University and Scripps alum, Marisa Dockum, back to the bricks!
Marisa Dockum currently serves as a Senior Strategist on the Global Digital Marketing team for Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Fortune 100 company in the healthcare space that employees more than 65,000 people worldwide.
Her team works for the Immunodiagnostics Division, which manufactures and sells a blood test that aids in the diagnosis of allergy and autoimmune diseases. In her role, she supports digital marketing teams around the globe, specializing in overall global strategy and campaign efforts, social media strategy and execution, and organic search optimization efforts. 
Before joining Thermo Fisher, Marisa worked on the agency side at a global B2B agency called gyro, serving clients in healthcare, food and beverage, manufacturing and tech. Marisa graduated from Ohio University in 2015, where she was an active member in Scripps PRSSA where she served as the first ever VP of Social Media during her sophomore year and the Global Leadership Center program. She also interned for the Miss Universe Organization, Edelman and Fahlgren Mortine. Marisa currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her fiancé, Justin, and goldendoodle puppy, Ollie.
Here are some takeaways:
- Location doesn’t determine your opportunities; you don’t have to work in big cities like Chicago or New York to work with “cool clients.”
- Your professional career depends on the connections you have and make.
- You WILL end up doing something you never thought you would be doing.
- Since Marisa has spent time working in both an agency and corporate work environment, she spent a lot of time comparing her experiences.
- Agency
- Variety of clients
- Make clients happy
- Strategic thinkers, smart doers
- Creative freedom, push the envelope
- Specialized expertise
- What’s personal life?
- $
- Fluctuation and turnover
- Corporate
- One client, one industry
- Make you happy
- Tenure professionals, change = bad
- Red tape, battle to push the envelope
- Jack of all trades
- No emails on a holiday
- $$$
- Stability and security
- “It’s important to ‘roadmap’ and make sure your team is aligned in strategies, campaigns and goals,” said Marisa.
- Marisa heavily emphasized the importance of maintaining professional relationships, especially with Ohio University alum. Bobcats love helping Bobcats!
- Marisa encouraged everyone to connect with her on LinkedIn and contact her if you ever need anything—her email is marisadockum@gmail.com and her Twitter username is @MarisaDockum.
Kate Ryan is a junior Journalism – Strategic Communication major and member of the Scripps PRSSA Publicity Committee. You can keep up with Kate on Twitter @ryanmkate