Rachel Anna Neff, PhD
HIGHLIGHTS
Bilingual English/Spanish digital marketing and omnichannel strategist with agency experience in B2B and B2C social media marketing, influencer activations and public relations. Expert in paid and organic video marketing, particularly YouTube. Search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social media optimization and paid social media buying experience. Fluent in digital KPIs. Google Analytics certified.
EDUCATION
The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas
MFA Creative Writing, August 2016
Graduate Certificate in Technical and Professional Writing, June 2016
University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California
Ph.D. Spanish, June 2013
M.A. Spanish, June 2009
Dissertation Summary: “Weird Women, Strange Times: The Representation of Power through Female Gender Portrayals in 19th and 20th century Iberian Literature.”
Director: David K. Herzberger.
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington
B.A. Spanish, summa cum laude, May 2007
B.A. English pre-law with emphasis in creative writing, summa cum laude, May 2007
Honors thesis: “Poesía y Paz: Politics in Pablo Neruda’s Late and Posthumous Poetry.”
PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONAL HONORS
PRWeek US Awards 2019
The International Olive Council and Finn Partners: Delivering the Olive Oil Promise and Consumption Growth – Honorable Mention in Best in B2B
Cetera Financial Group and Finn Partners: Closing the Gap Between Perception and Reality – Finalist in Best in Financial Communications
PRSA Oregon Spotlight Awards 2019
The Olive Oil Promise, LANE, a Finn Partners Company and International Olive Council – Spotlight Award for Campaign, Marketing Business-to-Business
Heart Health Month Multichannel Campaign, LANE, A Finn Partners Company and the Marine Stewardship Council – Spotlight Award for Campaign, Public Service
WORK HISTORY
Account Supervisor, Finn Partners, Portland, Oregon, July 2019 – present.
Senior Account Executive, LANE, a Finn Partners Company, Portland, Oregon, May 2018 – June 2019.
Manage day-to-day activities of account teams and projects. Participate in new business development and support organizational initiatives. Perform audience and persona research, provide crisis training and monitoring, outline social media best practices for search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), test and review ad campaign outcomes and performance to maximize ROI for client digital ad spend on sponsored media, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Selected for Finn Partners Global Intelligence Certification Program. Participate in corporate-level diversity, equity and inclusion committee and Portland-level diversity, equity and inclusion committee.
Provide paid and organic digital strategy and industry best practices for Google Analytics, Google Ads and social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Synthesize broader industry trends and emerging opportunities in order to complement traditional public relations efforts. Advise and recommend marketing and messaging strategies for integrated marketing plans. Provide social media optimization (SMO) for clients. Write copy for website and social media.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Adjunct instructor, Humanities (Spanish), Georgia Military College, Columbus
August – December 2012. Taught “Spanish 101.” Held full responsibility for creating lesson plans, evaluating student learning, planning and executing student learning outcomes, instruction and grading. Worked with Moodle LMS and Promethean boards.
Teaching assistant, Hispanic Studies Department, University of California, Riverside
June 2008 – July 2012. Taught “Elementary Spanish” and “Intermediate Spanish.” Held full responsibility for all instruction and grading. Worked with Blackboard LMS.
Instructor, Upward Bound Summer Program, University of California, Riverside
June – July 2011. Taught “Public Speaking and Debate.” Worked with high school students who were low-income and/or potential first generation college students. Held full responsibility for all instruction and grading.
Instructor, Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, Washington State University
August 2004 – May 2007. Taught “Spanish Conversation.” Created lesson plans, evaluated students’ conversational abilities using the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) system, and held full responsibility for leading discussion.
LITERARY HONORS
“Tied Up With Strings,” Honorable Mention, Iron Soap Blog, 2016. Microfiction.
“Final Projects.” Honorable Mention in 15th annual Lois Cranston Memorial Prize contest (Paulann Petersen, judge), 2016. Poetry.
“Mary McCue.” (villanelle) Second Place in Betty Fukuyama Traditional Poetry, Junior-level, Washington Poet’s Association Contest (Susan Moon, judge), 2002. Poetry.
PUBLICATIONS
Creative Nonfiction
“Liminality.” Borderlands at Millikin, forthcoming.
Chasing Chickens: When Life after Higher Education Doesn’t Go the Way You Planned. UP of Kansas, 2019.
“Between here and the bed are 1000 steps.” LandEscapes. (2007): 86-89.
Chapbook
The Haywire Heart and Other Musings on Love. Finishing Line Press, 2017.
Anthologized Poems
Erase the Patriarchy! An Anthology of Erasure Poetry. (ed. Isobel O’Hare) University of Hell Press: “Ylla” and “Night Meeting.”
Weaving the Terrain: 100-Word Southwestern Poems (eds. David Meischen and Scott Wiggerman) Dos Gatos Press: “Grand Canyon.”
They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing. (eds. Simone Muench and Dean Rader) Black Lawrence Press: “Lost” (with Grant Holly).
Bearing the Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems (eds. Scott Wiggerman and Cindy Huyser) Dos Gatos Press: “Lonely Town.”
Poems
“The Reason I Don’t Keep Whiskey in the House” Inlandia, 2021.
“Lawton, Oklahoma” and “Sirens,” JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, spring 2017.
“Atomic Forces,” “Daphne,” Crab Fat Magazine, May 2016.
“One for Sorrow” and “Juliet Killed Herself to Get Away from Romeo,” Persephone’s Daughters, March 2016.
“Phantasms of Love,” Dirty Chai Magazine, fall 2015.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Regularly share expertise with audiences to position company as knowledgeable and expert in digital marketing and public relations space
- Emerging Professionals of Portland (EPOP) – Presented understanding your social media footprint
- CEO Forum – Presented on reputation and crisis management
- Oregon Executive MBA class – Presented digital marketing best practices
- Meltwater Social Summit in New York City – Panelist, with video here
- Vidyard FastForward17 Summit – Invited presentation “Video and Social: How to Use Video on YouTube and Social to Drive Results”
- “Trauma and Time in Biutiful” Paper presented at Time, Space, and the Imaginary: Acts of Juxtaposition, Appropriation, and Subversion, Riverside, California, 2013.
- “Vacas de Julio Medem: el cine vasco y su relación con el cine indígena de Latinoamérica” Paper presented at Tales of the Borderland: Crossing Physical and Textual Borders in the Hispanic World, Riverside, California, 2012.
- “Veneno como venganza: un intento fracasado” Paper presented at Dialogando con la literatura: Convergencia mediática y su expresión escrita, Riverside, California, 2011.
ACADEMIC AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
Outstanding Graduating Student, UTEP, 2016
Chancellor’s Fellowship, UCR, 2010.
UC-Cuba Mini Grant, UCR, 2009.
Chancellor’s Fellowship, UCR, 2007 – 2008.
Outstanding Senior Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures, WSU, 2007.
Outstanding Senior in Spanish, WSU, 2007.
S. Town Stephenson Award (Honors College), WSU, 2007.
Student Research Excellence Award Honorable Mention, WSU, 2007.
Sidney G. Hacker Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship, WSU, 2006 – 2007.
Writing Portfolio Passed with Distinction and judged Best of Fall Semester, WSU, 2004.
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation Belle Scholar, 2003 – 2007.
Crimson Regents Scholarship, WSU, 2003 – 2005.
Burgess Brothers Scholarship, WSU, 2003 – 2004.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Chair, Hispanic Studies Conference Steering Committee. Worked with several other graduate students to plan, organize, and execute the Hispanic Studies graduate student conference: Contested Territories: Violence, Conflict, and the Body, February 2009-November 2009.
Chair, Graduate Student Association Conference, March 2009-May 2009. Elected by Graduate Student Association members to chair the fourth annual Graduate Student Association conference: Consilience: Building Bridges Across Disciplines on May 23, 2009.
Vice-president, Hispanic Studies mini-GSA. Serve as an alternate representative for Graduate Student Association meetings, September 2008-June 2009.
Chair, Graduate Student Association Allocations Committee, September 2008-June 2009.
Member, Graduate Student Allocations Committee, September 2009-June 2009.
Member, Graduate Student Association Bylaws Committee, September 2008-June 2009.
Chair, Hispanic Studies Conference Steering Committee. Worked with several other graduate students to plan, organize, and execute the Hispanic Studies graduate student conference: (Re)semanticize, (Re)locate, (Re)claim: An interdisciplinary dialogue on entities and identities, March 2008- November 2008.