Sam Anthony
Optimizer. Curator. System Builder.
You can head straight to the résumé if you're in a hurry. I just think bullet points can only tell you what someone did — but a story tells you how they see the world. So I left the list on the résumé and kept the story here.
Skip to RésuméStart from the beginning
Era 1
Era 2
Era 3
Era 4
Era 5
1998-2008 · The Early Years
Portfolios usually skip this section. I'd argue it's the most honest part.
I grew up in a state park. Not near one, not by one — in the historic house of one.
My mom was a ranger, so the park was partly home and partly responsibility. Every animal we ever adopted or fostered had been dumped there, and each of them was the best pet you could imagine (except maybe the Pointer that ate my gingerbread house one Christmas).
The park hosts came and went with the seasons: retired couples in RVs, passing through, leaving behind small pieces of the wider world. One gave me a taste for Chinese food that never really left. Another gave me a Game Boy with Pokémon Emerald loaded in it, not knowing the gravity of what she was starting.
Mornings and afternoons were two hours on the school bus, first stop, Game Boy in hand; that Emerald cartridge has over 1,000 hours of playtime on it today. Recess was link-cable battles and trading cards with friends — a small economy of its own. Afternoons were PBS with my grandma — Dragon Tales, Cyberchase, Clifford — and running GM simulations in Madden 2005 or WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw on my PS2 like I had real stakes in the outcome. Nights were for library books under the covers with a flashlight: Percy Jackson, Magic Tree House, IQ, Eragon, Artemis Fowl — anything I could get my hands on from the library.
I don’t think I was ever casually interested in anything. If I found a world, a game, a system, or a story I loved, I was in it all the way.
My mom was a ranger, so the park was partly home and partly responsibility. Every animal we ever adopted or fostered had been dumped there, and each of them was the best pet you could imagine (except maybe the Pointer that ate my gingerbread house one Christmas).
The park hosts came and went with the seasons: retired couples in RVs, passing through, leaving behind small pieces of the wider world. One gave me a taste for Chinese food that never really left. Another gave me a Game Boy with Pokémon Emerald loaded in it, not knowing the gravity of what she was starting.
Mornings and afternoons were two hours on the school bus, first stop, Game Boy in hand; that Emerald cartridge has over 1,000 hours of playtime on it today. Recess was link-cable battles and trading cards with friends — a small economy of its own. Afternoons were PBS with my grandma — Dragon Tales, Cyberchase, Clifford — and running GM simulations in Madden 2005 or WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw on my PS2 like I had real stakes in the outcome. Nights were for library books under the covers with a flashlight: Percy Jackson, Magic Tree House, IQ, Eragon, Artemis Fowl — anything I could get my hands on from the library.
I don’t think I was ever casually interested in anything. If I found a world, a game, a system, or a story I loved, I was in it all the way.
My All-Time favorite media shelf
2009-2017 · The School Years
A small town teaches you what a résumé can’t.
Aumsville is the kind of town that has a corn festival, a high school in the middle of a field, and people who actually show up for each other. I loved it, even if I didn't always fit it. The friends I made there are still the ones I'd call first today - even if our main hangouts were just heading into the closest big town to watch a movie or grab Taco Bell.
When I wasn't working as a cashier at Safeway in Salem or bucking hay in the summers, I competed in everything I could. I got cut from the basketball team sophomore year when I stopped growing at a whopping 5'7", picked up tennis instead, and made #1 singles. I competed in academic competitions, DECA, TCG tournaments, and competitive NBA 2K wager matches.
Mr. MacBeth, my AP History teacher, saw something worth investing in and helped me qualify for a scholarship that covered close to half my tuition — which mattered more than I probably let on at the time. Less than ten percent of my graduating class of 200 went to a four-year college. The guidance counselors weren't much help with college. He was.
I headed to Oregon undecided, good grades in hand, without much of a map. Being academically excellent felt like enough. It wasn't, but that came later.
When I wasn't working as a cashier at Safeway in Salem or bucking hay in the summers, I competed in everything I could. I got cut from the basketball team sophomore year when I stopped growing at a whopping 5'7", picked up tennis instead, and made #1 singles. I competed in academic competitions, DECA, TCG tournaments, and competitive NBA 2K wager matches.
Mr. MacBeth, my AP History teacher, saw something worth investing in and helped me qualify for a scholarship that covered close to half my tuition — which mattered more than I probably let on at the time. Less than ten percent of my graduating class of 200 went to a four-year college. The guidance counselors weren't much help with college. He was.
I headed to Oregon undecided, good grades in hand, without much of a map. Being academically excellent felt like enough. It wasn't, but that came later.
The Receipts
Writing & Communication
99ᵗʰ percentile SAT verbal. English Student of the Year at Cascade. AP English, AP History, and AP Government. Never needed to be told twice to read something — or even once, honestly.
Business & Strategy
Competed in DECA business strategy and problem solving events. Led the creation and sale of 3D-printed school merch out of the student store (BEFORE it became tacky).
Math & Competition
99ᵗʰ percentile SAT math. Finished high school math two years ahead of schedule. First place in mental math at Pentagames, a district-wide math competition.
I am a heading
2017–2021 · The College years
The most interesting problems in college were the ones no one assigned me.
Eugene was a culture shock in the best way. I'd come from a town where college wasn't the default path, and suddenly I was surrounded by smart, driven people from everywhere. I liked it immediately.
I started as a business major, detoured through psychology, wandered into journalism, and never left. The SOJC felt like the first place where being curious, analytical, and a good writer were all part of the same skill set. I joined The Daily Emerald (the school paper) as an editorial writer, worked my way up to editor of the editorial desk, and then stepped into a role as an arts and culture reporter — I wanted the bylines, not the title.
COVID cleared my calendar junior year, so I built a student advising service, became the go-to guy for video games and video game accessories in Eugene and Springfield, and studied live cash poker just well enough to win some money from wealthy middle-aged men who wouldn't miss it too much.
I graduated Cum Laude in 2021 with a journalism degree, a business minor, an honors thesis on solutions journalism and audience engagement, and a clearer sense of what college had actually taught me: being smart helps, but the interesting problems are usually the ones no one assigns you.
I started as a business major, detoured through psychology, wandered into journalism, and never left. The SOJC felt like the first place where being curious, analytical, and a good writer were all part of the same skill set. I joined The Daily Emerald (the school paper) as an editorial writer, worked my way up to editor of the editorial desk, and then stepped into a role as an arts and culture reporter — I wanted the bylines, not the title.
COVID cleared my calendar junior year, so I built a student advising service, became the go-to guy for video games and video game accessories in Eugene and Springfield, and studied live cash poker just well enough to win some money from wealthy middle-aged men who wouldn't miss it too much.
I graduated Cum Laude in 2021 with a journalism degree, a business minor, an honors thesis on solutions journalism and audience engagement, and a clearer sense of what college had actually taught me: being smart helps, but the interesting problems are usually the ones no one assigns you.
The Academics
The Daily Emerald
Three years at UO's independent student newspaper. Started as an editorial writer, worked up to editorial editor, and then moved laterally into arts and culture reporting because I wanted the bylines, not the title. Covered local events, restaurants, campus life, and culture.
Full writing portfolio →
Academics & SOJC Honors College
Selective 25-student honors cohort within the School of Journalism and Communication. Completed advanced coursework in research methods, statistics, and experimentation in journalism, culminating in a thesis on the impacts of solutions journalism.
Download thesis →
The Baker City Herald
10-week paid internship through UO's competitive Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism. Reported on local news, politics, and community life in rural eastern Oregon during a summer of BLM protests, counter-protests, mask mandates, and COVID policy debates.
Full writing portfolio →
The Degree
Bachelor of Science in Journalism · Bachelor of Science in Media Studies · Minor in Business
3.85/4.0 GPA · 5.5 Writing GRE (98ᵗʰ percentile) · 164 Verbal GRE (94ᵗʰ percentile)
3.85/4.0 GPA · 5.5 Writing GRE (98ᵗʰ percentile) · 164 Verbal GRE (94ᵗʰ percentile)
The Hustle
'The Student Advisors'
During COVID, I built a four-year academic scheduling service for incoming UO freshmen. Each plan mapped an optimized course sequence for a student’s major/minor combination — minimizing wasted credits while preserving room for added majors, minors, or extracurriculars.
To make the plans more useful, I FOIA’d ten years of UO grade data by class and professor, then used it to help students achieve the highest possible GPA. I marketed the service in incoming freshman parent Facebook groups and sold custom plans for $80 each.
To make the plans more useful, I FOIA’d ten years of UO grade data by class and professor, then used it to help students achieve the highest possible GPA. I marketed the service in incoming freshman parent Facebook groups and sold custom plans for $80 each.
Check out the website I built for it →
A Dorm-Room GameStop
I became the go-to buyer and seller for video games, consoles, and accessories in Eugene and Springfield. The model was simple: buy collections, sell the pieces individually, and beat GameStop on both price and convenience. If someone wanted maximum value, they could list everything themselves and wait. If they wanted a fair deal that same day, they came to me.
I ran the whole operation using my closet as the warehouse, and built a network of regulars who came back every time they finished something new. It was a small business built on trust, timing, and knowing what things were actually worth.
I ran the whole operation using my closet as the warehouse, and built a network of regulars who came back every time they finished something new. It was a small business built on trust, timing, and knowing what things were actually worth.
My Marketplace Profile →
The Card Room
I found a local poker room in Eugene running cash games and started showing up regularly. I was never going to do it professionally, and I’m no Brad Owen, but I studied and learned the game well enough to beat bored middle-aged men with too much money — and for what I needed, that was enough.
Poker finally gave my mental math and probability instincts somewhere useful to go. It rewarded the same things I already liked doing: reading people, finding patterns, managing risk, and knowing when to fold on a bad bet and go all in on a good one. It wasn’t a primary income stream, but it was consistent enough to matter.
Poker finally gave my mental math and probability instincts somewhere useful to go. It rewarded the same things I already liked doing: reading people, finding patterns, managing risk, and knowing when to fold on a bad bet and go all in on a good one. It wasn’t a primary income stream, but it was consistent enough to matter.
Check out my full published Writing Portfolio
2021–Present · The big city years
The work got bigger, and so did the questions.
I spent the summer after graduation bartending in Aumsville — useful work, as it turns out, for someone about to spend years trying to make information land with people. Then I landed a job at Point B, packed up, and moved to Seattle with two friends from home, which made the city feel a little less enormous.
At Point B, I learned how communication actually moves through an organization: newsletters, executive updates, all-hands meetings, intranet rebuilds, change management, and the unglamorous work of making information easier to find and easier to trust.
Then I moved into a role supporting Microsoft's Windows team, where the job sat somewhere between communications, analytics, social listening, and rapid synthesis. The scale got much bigger — a billion-plus user platform, daily monitoring across three channels, hundreds of analyses, AI workflows built to make the work move faster.
Those years gave me real tools: executive communication, audience analysis, social listening, dashboards, access to AI tools and permission to integrate them into workflows before other companies, and a better understanding of how large systems respond to change. They also helped me realize that capability and direction are different things. The skills were real. The next question is where to point them.
At Point B, I learned how communication actually moves through an organization: newsletters, executive updates, all-hands meetings, intranet rebuilds, change management, and the unglamorous work of making information easier to find and easier to trust.
Then I moved into a role supporting Microsoft's Windows team, where the job sat somewhere between communications, analytics, social listening, and rapid synthesis. The scale got much bigger — a billion-plus user platform, daily monitoring across three channels, hundreds of analyses, AI workflows built to make the work move faster.
Those years gave me real tools: executive communication, audience analysis, social listening, dashboards, access to AI tools and permission to integrate them into workflows before other companies, and a better understanding of how large systems respond to change. They also helped me realize that capability and direction are different things. The skills were real. The next question is where to point them.
Point B Management Consulting
Insights & Change Management Analyst · July 2021 – October 2022
- Led complete end-to-end redesign of company SharePoint intranet — audited existing architecture, rearchitected information structure, built standardized templates, and worked directly with over 30 individual site owners and stakeholders to migrate, refresh, and standardize content across every department and geography
- Served as primary communications strategist supporting company-wide merger and acquisition — drafted change management communications, leadership messaging, talking points, and employee-facing announcements throughout the transition
- Managed end-to-end production of internal newsletter program across an employee audience of over 1,000 — wrote, edited, designed, and distributed via Mailchimp, achieving a 63% average open rate
- Ran ongoing A/B testing on subject lines, send times, content formats, and layout to continuously optimize engagement
- Produced separate executive-only newsletters for senior leadership, synthesizing company performance, industry news, and strategic updates into a concise briefing
- Planned, produced, and facilitated company all-hands meetings for an over 1,000 person organization — built run of show, drafted scripts, and coordinated speakers
- Wrote over 50 long-form consultant case studies documenting client engagements across multiple different practice areas, translating complex consulting work into clear, compelling narratives for external audiences
- Monitored and reported on internal newsletter performance metrics including open rates, click rates, and engagement trends, delivering regular performance reports to leadership
Microsoft/RedCley LLC
Media & Consumer Intelligence Analyst · November 2022 – June 2024
Senior Media & Consumer Intelligence Analyst · July 2024 – February 2026
Senior Media & Consumer Intelligence Analyst · July 2024 – February 2026
- Independently designed and deployed a Copilot AI agent that ingested daily media coverage from Meltwater, synthesized it into newsletter-ready format, and reduced reporting turnaround time by 48%
- Delivered 700+ individual performance analysis newsletters over 3 years — synthesizing coverage trends, sentiment data, social performance, and release reception into actionable insights for internal stakeholders
- Built and maintained custom boolean search queries in Sprinklr to surface specific issue types, keywords, and emerging topics in real time
- Designed and maintained custom dashboards in both Sprinklr and Meltwater for real-time monitoring, issue detection, and executive reporting
- Monitored Windows social channels daily using Sprinklr — tracking customer issues, common bugs, emerging sentiment shifts, and community reactions across hundreds of thousands of posts per month
- Wrote, edited, and published social communications for Windows feature and security releases across X, Bluesky, and Reddit — managing cadence, tone, and platform-specific formatting for each channel
- Tracked and analyzed Windows media coverage daily using Meltwater to monitor thousands of outlets for release reception, competitive coverage, and sentiment
The Side of It That Doesn't Show Up on a Resume
Novel Nights
My partner and I design and host themed literary experience nights at book bars in Portland and Seattle, turning specific book worlds, such as Project Hail Mary and Dungeon Crawler Carl, into live social experiences. Each night combines in-universe puzzles, themed drinks, crafts, and conversation prompts to create something part event, part game, part community-builder. Every event has sold out so far, with fifty attendees each night.
Follow our Instagram Account →
Web Development
I picked up Bricks Builder and WordPress as a deliberate upskill — I wanted to understand UX from the build side and learn what it actually takes to ship a site. So far, I've built out three projects: a site for a local sourdough bakery, a local herb shop, and this portfolio. The part I kept coming back to was structure: how pages flow, how information is organized, and how a site helps someone find what they came for.
See my website portfolio →
The Constant
Still playing and collecting Pokémon TCG. Still reading constantly. Still deep in sports, video games, and the same kinds of worlds that pulled me in as a kid. The formats change, but the pattern hasn’t much: find something with rules, depth, and a community around it, then get very, very into it. Also still attempting to beat the Battle Frontier in Pokémon Emerald without a meta team, which has been humbling for going on twenty years now.
Take a look at some of the websites I've been building
The future
Looking for the right problems.
My background sits at the intersection of communications, analytics, and systems thinking. I can write, I can pull data, I can build dashboards, I can find the pattern in a noisy dataset, and I can tell the story of what it means. I've done all of it at scale.
The jobs I want most sit at the intersection of analytical thinking, genuine enthusiasm for the product, and the kind of taste that comes from actually being a fan of what you're working on. The last few years taught me that domain matters — that the work gets sharper when you care about the audience, the product, or the problem.
In the meantime, I've been building — websites, book events, this portfolio, clearer direction — and upskilling: Bricks, WordPress, SQL, GA4, Figma, and of course, AI workflows. I don't sit still well.
I'm looking for my next role, ideally somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, hybrid, or remote. If you're building something people care about and need someone who can think across story, systems, and strategy, I'd like to talk.
The jobs I want most sit at the intersection of analytical thinking, genuine enthusiasm for the product, and the kind of taste that comes from actually being a fan of what you're working on. The last few years taught me that domain matters — that the work gets sharper when you care about the audience, the product, or the problem.
In the meantime, I've been building — websites, book events, this portfolio, clearer direction — and upskilling: Bricks, WordPress, SQL, GA4, Figma, and of course, AI workflows. I don't sit still well.
I'm looking for my next role, ideally somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, hybrid, or remote. If you're building something people care about and need someone who can think across story, systems, and strategy, I'd like to talk.
Thanks for sticking around and making it this far. If you read through all of this, please reach out if you want to - I'd love to chat :)
Sam Anthony
Communications · Analytics · Strategy
Download Résumé PDF
July 2024 – February 2026
Microsoft/RedCley LLC
Senior Media & Consumer Intelligence Analyst
- Independently designed and deployed Copilot AI agents that synthesized daily media coverage into newsletter-ready
format, reducing reporting turnaround by 48% and saving 10+ hours per week across the team - Produced 700+ Windows performance reports and newsletters over 3 years, briefing 300+ stakeholders on media
coverage, social trends, competitor activity, engagement, sentiment, and release reception across 80+ release cycles - Managed Windows update content strategy and publishing across X/Twitter and Bluesky, shaping customer-facing
narratives for servicing updates and driving 35M+ impressions across an 80K+ follower audience
November 2022-June 2024
Microsoft/RedCley LLC
Media & Consumer Intelligence Analyst
- Monitored Windows social channels daily in Sprinklr across 1M+ monthly posts, maintaining 100+ Boolean queries to surface emerging issues, sentiment shifts, and real-time conversation trends
- Analyzed daily Windows media coverage across thousands of outlets in Meltwater and Cision, tracking engagement and campaign KPIs that informed strategy for a 1B+ user platform and supported 6% YoY audience growth
- Built and maintained 5+ Power BI/Looker dashboards using SQL queries to track engagement, sentiment, media coverage, and release-cycle performance across 6+ data sources
July 2021-October 2022
Point B Management Consulting
Insights & Change Management Analyst
- Led end-to-end SharePoint intranet redesign, wireframing templates in Figma, rearchitecting information structure, and partnering with 30+ site owners to refresh content and standardize 500+ pages across all departments and geographies
- Owned twice-weekly internal newsletter production in Mailchimp, writing, editing, designing, and distributing campaigns that increased average open rate from 52% to 63%
- Produced 100+ M&A communications — including all-hands messaging, leadership updates, and intranet content — to support employee adoption across 1,000+ employees, while managing documentation and stakeholder tracking in Notion
January 2020-June 2021
The Student Advisors
Creator
Creator and Advisor of The Student Advisors, a part-time entrepreneurial venture focused on helping incoming college students reduce tuition costs and get the most out of their education through efficient scheduling.
Through this part-time venture, we:
- Built and launched a student academic advising service for incoming University of Oregon students, creating customized four-year degree plans across major and minor combinations
- Used public records requests, professor/course data, and Excel-based planning tools to help students compare class options and build clearer academic schedules
- Designed and managed an e-commerce website optimized for service clarity, customer ease, and order management
- Marketed the service through targeted social media and email campaigns, achieving a 12.5% average conversion rate and completing 50+ paid advising plans
September 2018-June 2021
The Daily Emerald
Reporter & Associate Desk Editor
- Led a team of 6-8 editorial writers, assigning and editing 10+ stories per week across web and print publication
- Covered local events, restaurants, arts, culture, and campus life as arts & culture reporter, building a consistent byline portfolio across print and digital
- Conducted in-depth interviews and research across a diverse range of topics, translating complex subjects into clear, engaging narratives for a student audience
- Collaborated with photo, video, and graphics editors to produce multimedia content across platforms
September 2017-June 2021
Education
University of Oregon
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Bachelor of Science in Journalism • Bachelor of Science in Media Research • Business Minor
Honors: SOJC Honors Program Graduate; Graduated Cum Laude; Gretchen Starr Journalism Award
GPA: 3.85/4.0 GRE: 5.5 Writing (98th Percentile), 164 Verbal (94th Percentile)
Skills
Communications
Executive Communications • AP Style Writing • Content Strategy • Social Listening • Stakeholder Alignment • CMS Platforms • Employee Engagement • Crisis & Issues Communications • Change Communications
Tools
Sprinklr • Cision • Meltwater • Google Analytics 4 • Power BI • SharePoint • Claude Cowork • Mailchimp • Microsoft Copilot • Figma • Notion • WordPress • Bricks Builder • Chat GPT • Slack • Microsoft 365 • Adobe Suite
Analytics
A/B Testing • KPI Tracking • Sentiment • Data Visualization • Boolean Search • SQL • Looker • AI Workflows
Certifications
Google Analytics 4 • Google Digital Garage • Uxcel • Mailchimp • HubSpot Social Media
Portfolio
Writing
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Website Design
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