Employee Spotlight - Kate Abbott

Get to know your coworkers! Each newsletter will highlight a different member of the marketing team. This month’s highlighted team member is Kate Abbott, Sr. Regional Marketing Coordinator for the Silver Spring Division.

1. Where did you grow up? Forest Hill, MD.
2. Do you have siblings? Where do they live and what are they doing with their life? I have a younger brother, Tyler, who lives in Annapolis. He’s currently Chief of Staff with the Maryland General Assembly and is starting some variation of a hedge fund. I also have an older half-sister, Stacy, who lives in the Detroit suburbs. She’s Director of Human Resources for an energy company. (Clearly, I’m not the child my parents brag about.)
3. What were your extra-curriculars in high school? I did a little of everything: volleyball, newspaper, peer counseling, band, creative writing, Future Business Leaders, Student Government, a student volunteer organization and a communications internship. The list could probably keep going for a while.
4. What college did you go to? I graduated from Towson in 2014.
5. What was your major? Business Administration with a focus in Marketing.
6. What was your career before MileOne? Before coming here, I was working at a country radio station. I did everything from sales to graphic design to billing to promotions. Before that, I was a contracted communications specialist, painted school gym lines as a summer job and hustled Girl Scout cookies as a child.
7. What is your favorite kind of music? Country. Closely followed by a couple variations of rock and cheesy pop songs.
8. What was your favorite concert you've ever been to? I drove out to Chicago for a weekend to see Garth Brooks a couple of years ago. It had been pretty high on my bucket list to see him live since I was a kid and it was one of his first shows back from a hiatus. I bought them for my mom and I on a whim and it ended up being exactly what I waited so long for (except it was mirrored by like 28 total hours in the car over 3 days).
9. What are your favorite sports teams? Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Red Wings.
10. What is your favorite food? I don’t really have one. I’m more of an eat-to-survive person. Probably french fries? 
11. What is your favorite vacation spot and the best things to do while there? Favorite vacation spot… Capri, Italy. There’s a chair lift that has no consideration for passenger safety that you can’t miss. It takes you up to a mountain top that overlooks the whole island. You blow in the wind like 100ft above ground for a good 20 minutes up and back and it's kind of terrifying. If you ever manage to get there, it’s 100% worth risking your life for. 
12. What are the top 3 things on your bucket list?  I take my bucket list very seriously, so this is an easy one. 1 - Spend time volunteering abroad. 2 - Stay in one of those glass igloos under the northern lights. 3 - Attend the Olympics – I don’t really care about the location, but I’m all about countries fighting it out for honor in a civilized fashion.
13. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? I’ve always wanted to spend some time in Africa, whether just for leisure or volunteering in something like community development and education. The culture, wildlife and general landscape is pretty cool.
14.  If you could have a discussion with anyone (dead or alive), who would it be, and why? Mark Westerman. But because he’s such a busy guy, I’d go with Queen Elizabeth II. She became Queen when she was 25 and has since ruled over essentially a quarter of the world’s population. I can’t imagine the things she’s seen, knows and the people she’s met. The entire royal family endlessly intrigues me.  
15. What is your favorite car? A black Range Rover. I have no specifics outside of that being the "goal" vehicle.
16. How do you usually spend your weekends? Home renovation projects or errands. I’m not one to sit still for very long, so I’m usually doing something out of the house or to the house.
17. What is your favorite thing about yourself? Eh, pass? It’s a big, oddly personal question… I guess I’d say the way I was raised. It's always been stressed in my family to work hard and treat people well and I think without that foundation I wouldn’t like much about myself.
18. If you could be any animal, which would you be and why? I think I’d be a panda. They seem so relaxed, and that’s 100% not me. It’d be nice to have that vibe for a while.
19. What are your top 3 favorite movies? Sweet Home Alabama, My Best Friend’s Wedding and The Holiday.
20. What are some of your pet peeves? This question was made for me! Live action remakes. Loud chewing. Not resealing containers. People who don’t use turn signals. Non-negotiable regional sports fees on cable packages. Noise from any personal handheld device that’s not mine. Paying for WiFi in airports. Perhaps most of all, people who call themselves “huggers.”

Family vacation in 2018. From left to right: father, Phil; brother’s girlfriend, Kelsey; Kate; mother, Jan; younger brother, Tyler.

Kate with Rascal Flatts in 2015 during a radio remote during the CMA Awards in Nashville.