Murray State alumna Kristie Helms spoke at the ninth annual Global Alumni Lecture Series on Nov. 19.
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| Kristie Helms spoke to a combined meeting of the Law and Public Relations Principles classes as part of her on-campus visit.
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Col. Lucretia McClenney and Sonja Martinez also spoke at the program, which has been sponsored by the MSU Alumni Association since 2006.
Helms graduated with a bachelor of science in journalism from Murray State, and earned a master of science in communications management from Simmon’s College in Boston, Mass.
She is currently vice president and global head of promotions and social business within the global marketing department at State Street Corporation in Boston.
Not only did Helms lead the launch of State Street’s first social intranet in early 2014, but she and her team were also recognized with a 2014 IABC Gold Quill Merit Award in Digital Communications.
Traveling around the world and visiting different cultures has shaped Helms into the person she is today.
The small town girl from Possum Trot, Ky., is holding her own in corporate Fortune 500 companies. Helms credits much of her success to the “matter-of-fact” foundation Murray State gave her. She values MSU for its practical nature, noting that she works with graduates on a daily basis from a variety of universities who didn’t have the same foundation.
“My success in my career had everything to do with that very practical and reasonable education I received at Murray State,” Helms said. “At the end of the day it’s understanding exactly what you need to do, how to do it and how you are going to get others on board with you.”
Involved in The Murray State News while on campus, and ultimately becoming the editor-in-chief during her senior year, Helms enjoyed her time in Murray.
In addition to visiting JMC classes while on campus, she spoke to the MSU Alliance. Helms currently lives in Boston with her wife, Kathryn Nettles, and serves as a great advocate of acceptance and awareness.
“When I first came out and admitting to myself I was gay, and telling my friends and family, you go through this period where you think you need to look gay and act gay,” Helms said. “I cut my hair short and I just thought, ‘hey, I like big hair and makeup,’ and that’s just me. At the core of it, I’m just me.”
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| Kristie Helms talks with Loyd Ford, editor and publisher of The Lake News. Helms worked for Ford early in her career.
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Her travels abroad and life-changing move to New York City have helped Helms in figuring out exactly who she is as a person. Helms said understanding who you are as a person and where you stand is important in business and in life.
“At the end of the day I’m the person who reads too much. I love cities. I’d rather walk around a city than walk on a beach,” Helms said. “I am the person who knows exactly who I am. In business I think that’s so important because people want to know who they are interacting with and they want to interact with a person with integrity. You can’t be a person of integrity if you don’t know yourself.”
Using her small-town background and matter-of-fact perspective Helms has taken the business world in stride. She’s been successful at State Street and other Fortune 500 companies. In addition to working for State Street, Helms has had a successful career in marketing throughout the United States and abroad.
In addition to frequent travel to the company’s European offices, she participated in a job rotation program in State Street’s Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo offices in 2010. While overseas she analyzed the best practices for communications across APAC and served as the company’s communication’s lead in advance of the G20 Summit in Seoul.
“When I was over there I realized how American I am, you read all these things and try to understand other cultures,” Helms said. “The thing that was brought really home to me is that I am ridiculously American. Back home in the North everyone thinks I’m a quiet ‘Southerner,’ but, boy, put someone in Asia for six months and they think you’re really direct, outspoken and tall.”
No stranger to hardships or challenges, Helms was working for State Street when the financial crisis occurred. She hoped to share with students both an insider’s and business perspective. One takeaway lesson Helms wished someone told her is the business world means figure out what’s supposed to be done and do it. “So often we sit back and wait for someone to assign a task,” Helms said. “What corporate America needs today is for people to come in, see what the problem is and figure out a solution to it and do it. I feel like I’ve made a whole career on that.”
Helms first novel, Dish It Up, Baby, (Firebrand Press, 2004) was a Lambda Literary Award finalist in Lesbian Debut Fiction. She has worked as a crime reporter for the Paris-Post Intelligencer, as a communications coordinator for United Cerebral Palsy in New York and had a wide variety of communication jobs.
While speaking to several classes and organizations on campus, Helms topics included making a living as a writer, social media and shifting trends in communication.
