BIRMINGHAM (June 20, 2022) —Merry Michael Smith, director of media at Big Communications, has been named to Ragan’s 2022 Top Women in Communications Awards List in the Mentor category.
Ragan’s annual Top Women in Communications Awards is a national program that celebrates female communications professionals whose dedication and contributions to the communications industry are making a signficant impact in their day-to-day jobs and careers, advancing the profession while accelerating growth for their organizations.
Smith’s work in establishing a mentorship program at Big in 2019 and overseeing its success since landed her a spot on this coveted list. Supporting growth and learning, Smith has always had a passion for mentorship, and she put that passion into action in creating Big Growth — a cross-departmental mentorship program now in its fourth cycle.
Chosen from a wide pool of nominees to receive recognition in Mentorship, Smith has been recognized for her accomplishments in a special write-up on Ragan’s internationally read news websites.
“Merry Michael not only shows leadership daily for the media and analytics team, but she also shows her commitment to the entire agency through Big Growth,” said Big CEO and Founder John Montgomery. “We are proud of her well-deserved, nationally-recognized accomplishment.”
Big Growth is designed to cultivate one-to-one mentor relationships among staff members that may not interact on a daily basis. During the program’s pairing stage — the first step of the bi-quarterly mentor program — staff members are placed with a mentor/mentee based off responses to a personality survey. Once mentors and mentees are paired, they are asked to meet once a month to learn more about one another and encourage personal growth and professional development. To cultivate meaningful conversations, Smith led alignment with Big’s creative team to create conversation cards that ensure dialogue is impactful to both mentor and mentee participants.