My name is Michelle Soto and welcome to my blog! Starting a blog feels like doing ice breakers at Freshman Orientation, so I am going to assume you are on board and tell you a bit about me.

The first fun fact I will share is that I am a sucker for turning my name into a portmanteau. So, in this blog entry, you will find me as a “Michelper” and October is “Michalloween!”

The first serious fact I will share is this…

While my passions and professional direction point toward Historic Sites and History Museums, I have worked in Theatre, Printing, Sales, Hospitality, Tourism, Historic Sites, and Land Preservation. I am one of those people who “wears many hats.”

I want to help the organizations I serve to be the strongest organizations possible. I currently hold two positions. I am a Historic Site Guide at Christ Church Preservation Trust, and the Digital Marketing Manager at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. At Christ Church I am an educator, but I also helped establish a new admission policy; I take marketing photos and help other members of the staff update their language to be more accessible to all visitors. I can ask if a visitor would like a copy of our information in French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Spanish because I want to help them too! I have worked with The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre off and on since 2016, and a member of our board recently joked that I had held more titles than any other staff member. I have held many titles because I have a diverse skill set, and I am willing to use it to strengthen the organization. Today, I am a Digital Marketer, which means I am the person who runs a majority of our Social Media Accounts, I admin their blog and Constant Contact email campaigns, but I also help run auditions, I fix broken printers and broken Excel Equations. I also occasionally make 200 bite-sized pumpkin pies from scratch for donor events.

My Master’s Thesis is about how organizational identity affects the presentation of content concerning accessibility and inclusivity because I believe wholeheartedly that the answers to our questions lie in analyzing our shared experiences and bringing people together. I am sure there will be a blog on that sometime in the near future, but for now, please know I want to help.

This introductory blog is the first of many! You can expect project updates, blog posts about my research, and the adventures I take.

In the meantime feel free to follow me on LinkedIn and Instagram!