Former Editor in Chief of  The Streak and  Peer Leader, Amanda Brands, Class of 2011, shared her experience as a Warren Hills alumna and now as an editor and program manager at WebMD. 

Brands had many fond memories to share, especially her involvement with newspaper staff and  Peer Leadership, crediting them, in part, for helping to prepare her for college.

“In some ways, my high school experience helped me prepare,” she said. “From an education standpoint, Journalism and my English classes were great for teaching me how to write and communicate effectively.”

Brands graduated from University of Delaware in 2014 with an English degree, unsure where her career path would lead.

 “When I graduated,  I really had no idea what I wanted to do,” she said. “I started by working at a small publishing company in Delaware because it was something I was qualified to do and had interest in. That is where I learned to love publishing and saw the potential for a career.”

Brands worked about nine months at Prestwick House publishing in Smyrna, DE before moving onto Pearson in Hoboken, NJ in 2015. 

“Once I made the jump to Pearson, a global company with the ability to grow,” she said, “I started to get my feet under me as far as defining a career path.” 

        During her six years with Pearson, Brands held several positions, including editorial assistant, production project manager and a senior editor of college textbooks.  

“One of my favorite things about working at Pearson was traveling to different colleges and conferences and talking to the people that use our textbooks,” she said. “I loved getting to see how much they really cared about their students and the materials that they use to teach.”

Brands left Pearson in 2021 for her current job as a program manager at  WebMD, where she  coordinates with a variety of teams on the digital-only platform.

“Basically, my job is to make sure when a pharmaceutical company gives us money to build a project, we do it correctly and on time,” she said. “It’s interesting because I have a ton of exposure under the hood of a big internet company, and I get to see how the gears turn to make it all happen.” 

Brands also saw the opportunity to launch a science and technology newsletter via the WebMD platform. 

“It did surprisingly well and now I work with the marketing team on curating and writing newsletters that go out to millions of healthcare professionals,”  she said. 

Brands emphasized how other people have influenced  her work and ended with some advice for those interested in pursuing a similar career path.

“I’ve worked with so many cool people that have such interesting experiences to share,” she said. “While jobs teach you skills, people teach you lessons.”