Roadmap to Success: Meet Spring 2026 Graduate and Employee Gabby Damis

At 4:30 a.m. most mornings, Gabby Damis would wake up and get started on coursework before clocking into her role as a marketing analytics coordinator in Empire State University’s Office of Enrollment, Technology, and Engagement. The MS in Marketing Analytics graduate has been working towards her professional degree at the same institution at which she works.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Damis also lived in Tortola before relocating to Spring Valley, New York. She earned a bachelor’s degree in media communications from the University at Albany, which was the gateway into her work at SUNY Empire, originally contributing to the university’s social media presence. “It was my first job out of college,” she said. In February 2024, Damis transitioned into her current role interpreting data across marketing campaigns to better communicate with audiences.

The graduate explained her duties as a marketing analytics coordinator: “I see what the data is, I come to a conclusion, and then we make decisions based on those conclusions.” She analyzes email and social media campaigns using tools like Google Analytics, Power BI, and custom URL campaign codes that track the patterns of prospective students when they access Empire State University’s site. Damis also does a fair share of presentations to showcase her findings to the department. Some of the conclusions Damis might derive are things like: “If the subject line is not compelling enough, then obviously it’s not getting people to open it.”

For the duration of her degree program, Damis managed full-time employment and graduate coursework. “I would often wake up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. to get my work done and then go to work because my brain functions better in the morning,” she said. Some days, Damis would also dedicate her lunch break to doing homework, leaving her evenings open for exercise, social activities, and rest.

Naturally, her professional career and academic studies intersected a great deal—she learned how to use Power BI in her first graduate course, which became a helpful tool on the job. “It was such a good tool to have, especially with my presentations, so I can create visualizations for my stakeholders. It helps them because some people are more visual,” Damis explained.

A project using new tools to track how prospects first encounter SUNY Empire and follow their interactions with university content throughout the enrollment pipeline is one of Damis’ proudest achievements. She explained how it functions: “I can tag each and every student, and then I can see a lot more information about them. When they first started completing a form, if they took a break, and if they came back to it or if did not come back at all.”

Though she enjoys her current work, the path to it was not linear—Damis once wanted to be a lawyer. Her higher education journey began at community college, where she was an honors student during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you’re an immigrant, you don’t have paths set up for you, because this is your parents’ first time being here. The process of life is so much different than for somebody who has already had a path created for them,” Damis shared. She now holds two degrees and a full-time job, and she did it all without a roadmap. Her advice? “Do it. Start small, but still get it done. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”