Catching up with Cori Sue Morris '04

In the thirteen years since she graduated from Shorecrest, Cori Sue Morris '04 has established herself as an expert in the marketing/brand strategy industry and the publisher of a must-read lifestyle website with hundreds of thousands of monthly readers - mainly young, professional women in Washington, DC, New York and Chicago. After a stint working in communications for the United States government in Washington, DC, she began to delve into private sector marketing and brand messaging, first working for a start-up online interior design brand and later opening her own boutique brand consulting company. She is now the owner/principal of Citrus Media, a boutique marketing firm in Washington, DC, and co-founder of a popular food and lifestyle blog. We caught up with Cori Sue to see what she’s been up to since leaving Shorecrest.

 

 

Cori Sue Morris ‘04: After leaving Shorecrest, I attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and studied Journalism, History and Spanish. UNC was my top choice. I’m grateful to Shorecrest for all those AP classes, college prep, and a strong recommendation from Mr. Moore, who also taught at UNC.

 

I began my career working as a political reporter for Raleigh’s News and Observer before joining the social media launch team at National Geographic News.

 

In 2009, I transitioned to government work when I began working for the US Coast Guard Headquarters as the lead writer of the Coast Guard’s Congressional Deepwater Horizon report. Later, I became the one-woman communications shop at an international NGO that specialized in international apparel workers’ rights i.e. preventing sweatshops in countries like Bangladesh and India through certification and training. Around that time, I also started working on my master’s degree in International Affairs at George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.

I was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow which lead me to an amazing opportunity to work at the U.S. Department of State as the digital lead and speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Office. It was what I had always wanted to do!

 

 

After two years as a Communications Specialist at the Department of Energy, I moved to marketing when I started to work for Havenly, an online interior design service, as the Brand Marketing Director. My family was really nervous when I went from the Presidential Management Fellows Program, a very prestigious program in DC and a stable track, to take a pretty substantial paycut and join a start-up. They thought I was crazy. But I was excited to use my expertise in digital and social strategy in a new way.

As for the blog, it started very naturally for my co-founder, Becca, and me. I was 23 years old, exploring the city and going to brunch and going to art galleries. I noticed that there were not a lot of blogs speaking to a younger audience in Washington, so we started to blog and then went to formalize the editorial side before we began to monetize it. And it grew rapidly from there!'

Right now, we have expanded into three cities (DC, Chicago and NYC) and have hired 15-part time writers, which is exciting! It’s pretty incredible that we’ve corned a niche—brunch—and been able to build a profitable media company around that. Millennials love brunch! But, my favorite part about running this small-but-growing brand is leading a team of incredible young women, seeing them grow in their writing, and working with small businesses.

 

In 2015, after working as the Director of Marketing for Havenly, I decided to strike out on total self-employment.

 

In 2016, I founded a new marketing firm called Citrus Media. We work on marketing, social media and brand strategy support with our clients. We often work with women-led companies, such as boutiques, start-ups, restaurants, wedding planners, etc.  

 

 

I’m grateful to Shorecrest for truly preparing me for college—our rigorous coursework at Shorecrest was definitely harder than both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at UNC and GWU. And our college counselor was incredibly helpful. I loved Spanish classes with Sra. Powers and Sra. Andrés, Mal Ellenburg encouraged my love or reading—I am still a voracious reader. In his class I learned to digest a lot of pages in a short amount of time.

 

Mr. Heller taught the most memorable 10th grade history class—and we still keep in touch today. He cares so much about his students—I have such respect for him. Lastly, I would not be where I am without Mr. Moore: I loved his classes, and benefited immensely from his mentorship and guidance.

 

 

My favorite memory was coming back to school in August. My friends and I would be outside having cross country practice when it was a million degrees outside and then come back and start prepping for Homecoming Week and the powder puff game. I just loved the excitement and energy of a new school year, as well as running again, and seeing friends after the long summer.

 

A big thank you to Cori Sue for speaking with us. To learn more about her marketing firm, visit the Citrus Media website, and be sure to check out her blog!