Shannon Carroll Washington
Senior Marketing, Communication & Engagement Manager
ISS Guckenheimer
You mentioned in your Rising Star application you feel a great deal of satisfaction from helping others, avoiding complacency and providing the opportunity for upward momentum. How has your participation in the SHFM Rising Star program helped you with these goals?
I don’t think I could be in the Rising Star Program and meet monthly without feeling like I am on an awesome amusement park ride, where everybody is circling and it just keeps moving. The thing is, when you get around a group of people where there is a momentum, you can’t help but move too. And I love being able to have authentic conversations. I feel like the Rising Star Program offers a resource when you are feeling stuck or need support to move ahead. To be able to engage with this group of people has been amazing. I’m looking forward to our next call because I know I can count on a safe place where I can ask questions, we can work things out together and we can keep up the momentum.
In your role in your company you discuss being a storyteller and providing creative ways to tell culinary stories, how has your experience with SHFM helped to foster this creativity?
My experience with SHFM has opened the door to the food industry, like I’ve never seen it before. I feel like I thought I had a gauge on what food people do, how they thought, the way that they saw things; but I realized I was only scratching the surface of what this industry had to offer when it came to people.
I think SHFM has helped me get to know so many more facets of this industry and the people who are behind what we eat. When it comes to storytelling, for me, I know that I have a knack for it. I know that telling stories comes naturally to me. But in working with culinarians that might not be the case for some. A chef will put out a beautiful selection of food, and there’s so many details, textures, so many layers to a single plate. Most people, if they’re not culinarians, are not going to know what went into it; maybe they will say it simply looks good or tastes great. Being a part of SHFM, being a part of this network of culinary people, I am not only getting to know food, I’m also getting to know the people, their personalities and their intentions. I’m able to connect more and that is brought out in my storytelling, the words go beyond the plate.
An additional part of your company role is communication in the DEIB space, how do the relationships you develop through this role help you in this effort?
One of the things that I LOVE about my job is having conversations with people. And most people think, “Okay? You’re just talking to folks. What impact is that going to have?” But when I look at my life and I look at the decisions that I made– from a child, to a young pre-teen , to now– they were influenced heavily by the conversations I was exposed to. In my role, I get to host our podcast Lead, Grow, Deepen. I get to just talk to people about who they are, where they’ve come from. I’ve had the privilege to have conversations with so many different people and I am able to bring my team into it with live chat and Q&A. I am thankful for my involvement at SHFM, it has opened the door to even more conversations. To have a network of so many influential people is going to be amazing.
You attended your first SHFM Conference in Tucson as a Rising Star, how did you enjoy that experience?
I attended my first SHFM conference in Tucson as a Rising Star and I came in with my eyes and my ears wide open. I didn’t know what to expect. But, I will say, my favorite part of the conference, I mean there were so many great parts (Simon Bailey is also at the top of the list), but, it was the informal conversations that I got to have with the college students in attendance. It’s one thing to go to a conference and feel like you have to get something out of it, but I was able to engage and activate and help mentor somebody, which to me, just gives me that much more power. I feel like Mario jumping on a mushroom when that happens.
One of the things that has brought me along in my career, and it is still an ever present facet, is mentorship. Being able to glean nuggets of inspiration; situations that seem so daunting or so confusing, being able to see that somebody has overcome and gone into spaces that I would like to be in; being able to relate and see myself breaking barriers comes from mentorship.
For me, when I have to explain my career path to a new person, that is the key reminder and reference point for me to say I actually arrived and have a pretty cool job. It’s hard sometimes to really look at where you are in your career and realize you’ve climbed so high without looking down. We get so caught up striving for the peak, the “there” that we forget the marvel in the “here”. Oftentimes, we think we still have so much further to go. But then you realize,”Wow, I’ve come a long way.” Talking to the college students gave me another reference point. I felt empowered when I could sit and answer their questions. I got to be candid and transparent. It was awesome and it was a good reminder of the shoes I once filled and inspires me to keep growing.
Finally, our traditional final question: What and where was the best meal you have ever had?
One that comes to mind was at a family reunion in Jacksonville, Florida. It was just a regular old backyard barbecue and fish fry. Now, I’ve been to many cookouts and many times the food is meh, a couple a star bites here and there. But this particular event, I found myself delighted with EVERY SINGLE bite. Coupled with the fact that I was around my family, the smiling faces made this the best meal ever. We talk about belonging. And where I feel like I most belong, is with people that look like me, they know me. They could describe my childhood with stories about me that I didn’t even know. And just feeling the love of family roots and ties and seeing the generations present. It was like a movie. You see the kids running around, playing; you see the old aunties gossiping and playing cards; you see the uncle standing there at the grill, you smell the smoke, you feel the sun on your face, and biting into the perfect cookout plate made it all the more memorable.
That is the best meal I ever had because it was the meal that made me feel like I was home.