– By Tova Vance
Carling Spelhaug stepped into the New Year with a master’s degree and a promotion.
As part of Morningstar’s corporate communications team, Spelhaug focuses on internal and external communication. During her four years on the team, her position evolved but her title, Corporate Communications Specialist, stayed the same.
Spelhaug has been a member of IABC since 2010 and sees it as a “network of communicators to help solve problems.” She tapped into that network in 2013 as a student in Northwestern University’s Master of Science in Communication program.
Her assignment was to explore an aspect of visual communication with personal relevance. Spelhaug reached out to IABC for data on common communication job titles for people with five to eight years of experience. She used the data to create word clouds to share with her professor and her boss. Her initiative helped her reach graduation and landed her a new title—Associate Director of Corporate Communications—to go along with her promotion.
Spelhaug joined IABC to supplement her learning at work with more industry knowledge. Her manager, who has been a member for more than 20 years, also encouraged her to join. She recommends fellow communicators maximize membership by attending events and taking advantage of IABC resources.
