Notre Dame grad says NDP and alum father were big influences in her soaring career.
You might think somebody with a big and important career who earned four college degrees before she was 27 years old would attribute her career success to all of that post-secondary education. Or to studying or living in 18 foreign countries before she was 30.
But for Christy Maraone, a 2000 graduate of Notre Dame Prep, it was advice from her father and her high school that made the biggest differences in her life thus far.
“One of the most substantial influences for my career has been my father,” said Maraone, who currently is director of marketing, public relations and communications for Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. “My dad, Dennis, was a graduate of Notre Dame in Harper Woods (’70), and he expressed to me at a very early age the importance of a good education and dedicated work ethic.”
A successful marketing professional himself, Dennis Maraone has traveled to countless countries launching marketing initiatives for General Motors, according to Christy.
In fact, during Christy’s junior year at NDP, her family moved to Israel for a year while her father helped launch the Opel car brand and managed numerous other General Motors brands in that country. That was her first glimpse of life abroad and she said it really opened her eyes to a whole new world.
“I attended the American International School in Israel and even took a year of Hebrew,” she said.
And then there was Spanish
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2000, Christy Maraone enrolled at Oakland University and like most college freshmen didn’t necessarily have a clear career path in mind.
“My education at NDP was top-notch and it certainly set me up for success in my college years,” Maraone said. “But it wasn’t until I took my first marketing class at OU that the lightbulb came on — and it came on very brightly. I knew immediately that marketing was what I wanted to do.”
She also wanted to continue the Spanish classes that she very much enjoyed at NDP (“Thank you, Ms. Tesada!”). So Maraone decided to go for a dual major at Oakland: marketing and Spanish. It must have been a good decision because, after achieving continually high academic accolades at OU, Maraone was inducted into and graduated from the Golden Key International Honour Society at Oakland University, which recognizes students in the top 15% of their class. During her final year at Oakland, she also studied abroad in Valencia, Spain, where she completely immersed herself in the local culture and language.
“The time I spent in Spain not only solidified everything I learned in high school and college, it really incited a desire for international travel, leading me to visit 18 different countries so far,” she said.
But it wasn’t only her command of the Spanish language that Maraone attributed to Notre Dame Prep.
“At NDP, I also learned that I had a passion for writing (‘Thank you, Ms. Bembas!’) she said. “I very much enjoyed my English classes and writing became a passion for me in both my personal and professional careers. I was selected to be published in an international poetry book early in my career and was a regular contributor to a professional journal in Colorado for many years.”
Maraone, is with her father, Dennis, a 1970 graduate of Notre Dame in Harper Woods.
Reaching new career peaks in the Mile High City
Maraone left Michigan in 2005 to get an MBA from the University of Colorado at Denver. The accelerated 11-month program at CU Denver included an international study abroad component, which culminated in a presentation to an actual corporate board of directors in London and more study in Edinburgh, Scotland. After completing her MBA, she headed back to CU Denver to complete a master of science degree in marketing.
Maraone then dove head-first into the working world with a position at Entravision, an affiliate of Spanish-language broadcast television network Univision, where she quickly learned a lot about the fast-growing Denver market. She also was able to utilize the Spanish she’d first learned at Notre Dame.
Then, looking to shift her career toward more of a pure marketing position, she left Entravision for a marketing director position with Douglass Colony Group, a large commercial construction firm in Commerce City, Colorado.
“Although the company had been around for 65 years, I was its first marketing manager on the corporate staff and I initiated and coordinated all of the company’s marketing efforts,” Maraone said. “They had four offices in Colorado and satellite offices throughout the U.S.”
But after nearly five years at Douglass, she decided she wanted to switch industries and do more “meaningful marketing” that actually focused on helping people, perhaps with a nonprofit. So she pursued and landed a spot in the health-care industry.
“In 2014, I accepted a marketing and communications manager position with St. Anthony North Hospital, an affiliate of Centura Health, in nearby Westminster [Colo.],” she said. “Centura Health is the largest health-care system in Colorado and western Kansas and one of the largest employers in Colorado.”
Maraone said she loved working there and enjoyed spearheading all grand opening marketing efforts of the new St. Anthony North Health Campus. After transitioning to the new campus, she was ready to advance into a larger system with more challenges and greater responsibilities.
That’s when she landed her current position at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s in Denver. P/SL is the largest hospital in Colorado and it not only attracts local residents but also patients from a seven-state radius for specialty services that include high-risk OB, complex orthopedics, bariatrics, and bone marrow, liver and kidney transplants.
“Presbyterian/St. Luke’s is a 680-bed hospital that offers over 80 specialties and has 1,000 specialists and primary-care physicians with more than 1,600 employees,” Maraone added. “It really is keeping me busy! Plus, next year, the hospital will be celebrating its 135th anniversary!”
Irish inspiration
While there’s no denying that Maraone’s career success is due in large part to a healthy dose of hard work and perseverance mixed with four(!) college degrees, she reiterates the fact that it all would not have been possible without her time at Notre Dame.
“NDP really is at the foundation of every success I’d ever had, both personally and professionally,” she said. “It really taught me that with a lot of work and dedication, you really can achieve anything. I hope my story, along with those about the countless other successful Notre Dame alumni, will in some way inspire current NDP students to reach higher and follow their own dreams.”
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.