Advocating for You!

Kristiana started her journey of advocacy at Loyola University Chicago where she participated in her first BLM protest. At LUC, she joined AfroDescent (a student-led dance team that fused African and Hip-Hop dance moves) and later became Treasurer during her Sophomore year at the institution.

Having had these experiences, Kristiana had the desire to immerse herself with her roots and wished to attend a college with a diverse student and faculty population. She transferred to Governors State University- a small school with predominately Black, Hispanic, and Asian students with different ages and backgrounds. Here, she became Vice President of Student Activities Council, President of Student Council, a Peer Mentor, and an advocate for students’ needs. Among various modes of advocacy at Governors State, she led initiatives to educate students on the importance of voting and also served as the student representative for Governor State University’s presidential search.

Once she received her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a Minor in Marketing, she earned a Master of Science in Marketing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After completing her master’s degree, she went on to complete a post-graduate certification understanding the Foundations of Adult Instruction at UIC as well.

Her professional experiences kicked off at GSU in the Marketing Department, designing landing pages for graduate programs and analyzing metrics from digital ads across Meta and Google platforms. This was the perfect setup for her to enter into the corporate world. She started off as a project manager, managing quality assurance for brands like Newell Brands (formerly known as Newell-Rubbermaid), Bertolli, Mars Inc., and more. From there, she joined a market research agency where she exclusively supported Bacardi- sharing recommendations for marketing advertisements to executives at the company. With a desire to be closer to the research, she began working for a UX research platform where she designed primary research for new products and services across over 250 + logos. Her dedication and work awarded her steady promotions, eventually leading her own team.

In her career, she served on the Inclusion Committee as the Chair of the Team Bonding committee (a subcommittee of the Inclusion Committee) and co-led 2 rounds of internal research to educate peers on the experience of Black employees in corporate spaces.

Her exposure to graduate programs and dozens of industries (by way of research) created a vast understanding of what kinds of careers and businesses are out there. Having been an advocate for diverse students, research in large corporations, and marginalized communities in the workplace (and beyond), she wanted to take the knowledge that she learned and DO something more with it. Thus, Warm Advocates LLC was born.

“Working B2B (Business 2 Business) provided a ton of insight and experience, but it takes stepping out of the corporate world and in front of actual people to contribute a different type of impact. Understanding users and consumers is one lens, but how can I support PEOPLE? How can I equip people and businesses that do not have a 3 million dollar marketing budget or a budget to bring in business advisors? What about the students that are gearing up for college, but have no guidance or generational wealth to purchase extra courses? What about the people who have jobs that want to make a pivot, but don’t have a budget for advisory/coaching services? These are the people that I want to help.” - Kristiana