BY: URSULA ROSCIGNO
As a new era of virtualization and technological innovation dawns on our modern world, Playbook Series Inc. prepares to evolve with this rapid growing trend. These next few months bring about inspiration and opportunity for our rebranding, rebuilding, and reimagination. With these new and exciting changes to come, we are thrilled to welcome the newest member of our team who is playing a key role in our revamp. Playbook Series Inc. is proud to present our Lead Web Developer, Ericka Odom.
Ericka, originally from Tacoma, Washington, currently lives in Long Beach, California where she is remotely working for Playbook Series Inc. She considers herself a “wanderer” as throughout her life she’s lived in the states of Florida, California, and Washington as well as attended multiple colleges and pursued multiple majors. Though she plans to one day finish her bachelor’s degree, Ericka is currently thriving professionally after having discovered her passion for coding in 2016. This discovery came about after teaching herself how to build computers online. Ultimately, this sparked her fascination with technology and it’s growing presence in the world. Later on, she took a 16 week course in web development and has been focused on that field ever since. Ericka has previously worked in many fields such as alcohol and drug treatment counseling, mediary work for citizens and city municipalities, law office clerical work, and more. However, none of these professions have interested Ericka as much as the world of web development and the technical skills and creative possibilities that come with it. She describes herself as driven, determined, ambitious, and passionate about web technology; also stating that her “entire identity is almost associated with what she does for a living”. Ericka is inspired by the devices and innovation around her that make her realize that the future is here and she is ready to be part of it.
Ericka met Playbook Series Inc’s CEO Stephisha Ycoy-Walton in a remote class of Code Talk, an organization she defines as her sisterhood. There, Stephisha introduced the foundation and objectives of the Playbook Series Inc. inspiring Ericka to volunteer to work at our wonderful organization. Ericka had previously been working for an Inclusion career coach that turned her onto some technology as she was picking up experience along the way. However, as soon as she started working on ideas for Playbook, she knew she wanted to get even more involved.
Ericka believes that the Playbook Series Inc. has a great chance of being successful as an organization. In fact, she states that “between all the people involved, and lots of streams to connect with educational facilities and sports programs, success is guaranteed”. She sees herself playing a large role in this goal as a lot of the organization’s success depends on the website itself. Given the world’s current state, it is essential now more than ever to not only create a stable distance learning platform, but also to connect to the community.
One way Ericka plans on doing this is through the Online Nonprofit Resource Center. Her vision for this is a “Virtual Boys and Girls Club” as it will strive to create a sense of community and is established to keep young people encouraged to get better on a daily basis. She believes that Playbook Series Inc. can provide this Boys and Girls Club feel with a more specific purpose of providing scholar athletes with supplemental resources to encourage and develop leadership. This will in turn “become a bridge to guide them and help them from falling between the gaps”. She plans on implementing this sense of community through a clean and welcoming virtual community and furthermore, by providing an enjoyable user experience.
Overall, Ericka’s biggest goal is to spearhead the community with a tech team and create the most productive environment possible. Features will include a highly professional NPO page, a highly functional and safe ecommerce component, leadership library resources, clean functionality in the community, and a remote educational component associated with the brand. She hopes to launch our community with minimal glitches. This is only possible by project managing the technical aspects of the build. Furthermore, her vision is to provide a virtual community that would thrill everyone!
Ericka Odom, though a fairly new addition to the team, is already making strides in Playbook Series Inc. history. We are so excited to see what she has in store to help us continue working towards our goal of connecting scholar athletes with leaders and athletic organizations in the community who can help them achieve their goals and dreams.