Vanessa Evans, 35

Vanessa Evans is undeterred. She graduated from Florida State with a degree in retail merchandising and product development but knew in her heart she wanted to pursue a different path. Almost immediately, she set out on that mission. 

“I have very interesting…I call it luck,” Evans says. “I call it luck because my first opportunity just fell into my lap.” 

Photo by Mark Wemple

She’d been applying to jobs around the state in the traditional way of emails and cover letters and applications when she stumbled upon Press PR + Marketing in Tampa. At the time the company was undergoing a rebrand, and she was having a tough time finding her way through the normal channels. 

“So I took the bold move of reaching out to them via Facebook Messenger, and at the time, that was a big no-no in the professional world,” she says. “You go through the old-school way, right? Put your cover letter together, you send an email, you apply to the online application. So I took a chance. I emailed them to Krystin Olinski-Kirkland, who I picked to be one of my main mentors I've had.”

At the time, Press wasn’t hiring but Olinski-Kirkland was impressed by Evans’ tenacity to do her research and go through a unique channel to find her answers. She ended up helping Evans land a job at another firm, where she worked until the time was right for Press to bring her on, in 2013.

Evans spent nearly a decade at Press, working with individuals and organizations across many different industries — health care, entertainment and tech, to name a few.

Eventually it was time to move on. In 2022, she took a director of PR position at Visit Tampa Bay before landing in her current position as head of public relations for Legoland Resorts in North America. She currently manages PR for Legoland properties in California, New York and Florida. 

“I've always wanted to work in parks. It's always a dream of mine. And I saw the opportunity and I took it and ran with it, and here I am today,” she says. 

“What excites me about the future is seeing the current industry that I am in, seeing myself grow within that industry," she adds. "That's what I'm excited for."