Taylor Jeffers \u201913 \u201916 MBA began her Montclair journey with a focus on basketball,
\nhaving been recruited by Head Coach Karin Harvey. Her father, however, made sure
\nthat career goals came first.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad is in enterprise sales,\u201d Jeffers explains. \u201cI was interested in public relations \u2013
\nmy mom had a friend who worked in PR \u2013 but my dad encouraged me to get a good
\nfoundation in business as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, basketball played a big role in Jeffers\u2019 college years. The Varsity forward was
\nnamed First-Team All NJAC, was chosen to the D3Hoops.com Atlantic All-Region
\nSecond Team, and was selected to the All-Tournament Team at the Gwynedd-Mercy
\nTip-Off Tournament. In her senior year, she and her teammates had a 29-1 season,
\nmaking it to the Sweet 16. \u201cIt was incredibly exciting,\u201d she recalls. \u201cWe received lots of
\nproclamations and were interviewed by reporters from News 12 New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeffers didn\u2019t skip a beat after completing her degree and pursued graduate study as
\nsoon as she could. Guidance from one of her instructors, and a chance encounter with
\na Montclair administrator, helped her choose Montclair\u2019s Accelerated MBA program.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met Dr. Terry while working as a desk assistant in Panzer Athletic Center,\u201d she says,
\nreferring to Dr. Bryan Terry, associate vice president for Enrollment Management at the
\ntime. \u201cHe became a mentor. He encouraged me to apply for a graduate assistantship.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jeffers, graduate school meant piecing together a variety of jobs to help make ends
\nmeet. In addition to on-campus jobs as a marketing assistant with the Office of Student
\nFinancial Aid and an Assistant Women\u2019s Basketball Coach, she was a Production
\nTrainee & Content Coordinator for The NBA Replay Center.<\/p>\n
With a well-rounded education, on-the-job experience, strong writing skills and a natural
\ntalent for relationship building, Jeffers had all the tools for a successful career in brand
\nstrategy. She launched her post-MBA career at Bed Bath & Beyond, where she rose
\nfrom coordinator, CRM & Omni-Channel Strategy to Brand Marketing and Business
\nDevelopment, before striking out on her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter spending years developing marketing strategy at Bed Bath & Beyond, I wanted to
\nget more involved in designing and content creation,\u201d she says. \u201cMy ideal clients are
\nwomen who are founding their own companies. I want to empower women
\nentrepreneurs, and to help them build their businesses in a strategic way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeffers\u2019 business acumen, brand insight and stellar networking abilities brought her to
\nthe attention of The Black Bachelorette, which she describes as the leading digital pre-
\nwedding brand with a community of over 100,000 brides-to-be, celebrating and
\nsupporting Black women on the journey to \u201cI do.\u201d She identifies and secures sponsored
\ncontent opportunities to drive the program\u2019s growth, engagement and monetization. She
\nis also a content creator for Microsoft Start, a mobile news app.<\/p>\n
Empowering others, especially those in marginalized communities, remains a passion
\nfor Jeffers, however. While at Bed Bath & Beyond, she helped found the company\u2019s
\nBeyond Black Associate Coalition. At Montclair, Jeffers mentors students in the
\nAccelerated MBA program. Recently, she served on a panel organized by the Feliciano
\nCenter for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and she spoke about personal branding to
\nstudents who are part of the University\u2019s Educational Opportunity Fund program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are full-circle moments for me,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were times I struggled to keep
\nmy grades up. The advisors and mentors I found at Montclair helped me stay strong
\nand keep going. I want to do the same thing for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that she has joined the University\u2019s new Black Alumni Advisory Council (BAAC) as
\nwell, Jeffers hopes to increase the diversity of alumni representation on campus. \u201cI think
\nit is important for students to see and learn from successful alumni who look like them,\u201d
\nshe says.<\/p>\n
She also hopes to inspire her fellow alumni to join her. \u201cThere are so many benefits to
\ngetting involved and joining the network at Montclair,\u201d she notes. \u201cYou become part of a
\ncommunity, and it feels great to give back. The opportunities are endless!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Creative strategist and entrepreneur Taylor Jeffers \u201913 \u201916 MBA has helped raise the profiles of such noted brands as the NBA, Bed Bath & Beyond and The Black Bachelorette. Now, Jeffers is raising the aspirations of students in Montclair\u2019s Accelerated MBA program and bringing her expertise and energy to Montclair\u2019s Black Alumni Advisory Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":211397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-76_alumni-news-and-events","category-77_alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211395"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211398,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211395\/revisions\/211398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}