Meet Army Veteran, Georgiana Strait — Our New e-Commerce Marketing Director

This was one of the easiest hires we’ve ever made. Our new eCommerce Marketing Director Georgiana Strait checks all the boxes.

She’s a proven and experienced business professional, a self-described digital marketing nerd who’ll pass on the latest trending Netflix show and instead binge YouTube videos about the latest Google algorithm updates.

She’s an active duty Army veteran. She’s also engaged to a first responder at MSRC. She knows about hard work and unusual schedules.

She’s a caffeine fanatic whose beverage of choice is Fire Dept. Coffee’s Bourbon Infused Coffee.

Let’s just say, she fits right in around here.

While her full-time role is a new one, Georgiana has been working with Fire Dept. Coffee on a freelance basis since October 2021. She oversaw all of our advertising accounts, assisted with organic search, and analyzed website data to find improvement opportunities. Her mind is a perfect blend of analytical and creative, so she has always come to us with amazing ideas.

“Working alongside veterans and first responders has been a long-time passion of mine ever since my own time in service,” she said. “This, alongside the growth trajectory that Fire Dept. Coffee is on, made it an obvious and inspiring decision to come on with the team full-time.”

From CBRN to FDC

Georgina joined the U.S. Army in 2010 as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) Specialist. If that sounds like serious business, that’s because it is, especially during a time when the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were still going on.

Georgiana was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, but Army life took her around the world and gave her the opportunity to meet incredible people, both military and civilian. She’s got a great story about meeting Angelina Jolie on a C-17 aircraft heading from Afghanistan to Germany.

She also kept an eye on her future and used the resources available through her military service to advance her education. While on active duty, she used the Army’s Tuition Assistance Program to study at the University of Texas El Paso. After leaving the service, she used the G.I. Bill towards a double major in French Language and English Literature (Creative Writing) at Lycoming College.

She then launched into a marketing career that has given her the opportunity to work for a variety of companies, serving top brands across many industries.

It all led her to Fire Dept. Coffee, and what we believe is an incredible, long-term fit.

“Military personnel and first responders are extremely hard workers, and oftentimes they face serious physical and/or mental health challenges post-deployment or when returning to civilian life,” said Georgiana, who now lives in New Orleans. “That's why the FDC mission to give back to sick and injured first responders is so important to me. My fiance is also a first responder at MSRC – we both know firsthand how much it means to have support from companies such as FDC.”

Although born in Seattle, she and her family now reside in New Orleans. She recently became the New Orleans Coordinator for Warrior Writers, a national non-profit that offers monthly workshops to promote healing for veterans in the form of sharing and writing poetry, stories and art. 

Otherwise, you can find her exploring the Crescent City with her fiance, Otto, and their daughter Ellie, before coming home at the end of the day to two cats, a fish and a tortoise. 

eCommerce Marketing Strategies to Reach More Coffee Lovers

So what does Georgiana do as our eCommerce Marketing Director?

She’s here to develop, implement, and grow the eCommerce market for FDC. First and foremost, she’s always optimizing our existing marketing channels, like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. She’s also developing new strategies to introduce products to the market (and yes, new products are on the way!).

No matter what she’s doing, she’s continuously analyzing our performance metrics and our sales data. She’s bringing us new ideas to enhance our presence in the online world to help introduce Fire Dept. Coffee to as many coffee lovers as possible.

We know that all those nights she has spent binging nerdy digital marketing videos on YouTube are well spent.