Deana Gamble, KLN ‘06, was eager to serve her city and hoped to do it in anyway possible. Through her professional opportunities throughout college and her career, she worked her way up, serving as the director of communications for the Philadelphia mayor’s office.

When Gamble started at Temple, she studied a variety of topics, including journalism, public relations and advertising, but decided to major in organizational communication with a concentration in public relations—double majoring in spanish. She was also a member of Temple Public Relations Student Society of America and credits Klein College for prepping her for the professional world.

“Corporate sponsorship was my last class at Temple, which came in handy,” Gamble said. “Working in PR and doing so many events right out of college, corporate sponsorship was definitely in line with what I started doing in my career early on.”

 After graduation, Gamble served as an intern for Philadelphia International Records.

“I really credit my capstone project for helping me get the job. I did the project on this company so I had all these depths of knowledge from the project that I applied to the job,” Gamble said.

“As an undergraduate, Deana was an excellent student, always involved and engaged in the classroom. I knew she was destined for success in whatever endeavor se chose to pursue,” Gregg Feistman, the director of the public relations major, said.

However, Gamble knew she wanted to pursue a career that allowed her to give back to the city and advocate for organizations about which she cared, inspiring her to pursue nonprofit work.

“I thought that PR was a field that was really transferable because you could do [PR] for any cause you cared about,” Gamble said. “I knew it was a field that would let me be an advocate and advance a mission.”

She began working as the program director for The Wellness of You, a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia centered around education and youth programs.

“It was great because in the small nonprofit jobs, there’s only room to grow because you’re learning and doing so much, so I had a lot of great experiences like that,” Gamble said.

Following her inspiration to pursue nonprofit work, Gamble attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership. 

Gamble then worked for another nonprofit called Universal Companies. She worked on affordable housing, education and community development cases. Afterwards, she began work for the city as the director of communications for the Office of Adult Education.

Following Mayor Kenney’s inauguration, Gamble was invited to serve in the Office of Education to help with universal pre-K and initiate the Philadelphia beverage tax plan. She then served as chief of staff for the Office of Education.

“I went from just using my communications degree and skills to leading my department of 40 staff members,” Gamble said.

Currently, Gamble serves as the director of communication for the mayor’s office and is thankful for the continuous opportunities for growth through the positions she served.

“[The most rewarding part is] when you get to be involved with shaping policy and enacting policy and communicating with the public gives you that bigger impact on the city at large,” Gamble said.

“Her smarts, hard work and dedication, combined with her passion for public service have paid off with her prestigious new role in the mayor’s office,” said Feistman. “I couldn’t be more proud of her.”