Bio
Digital Director and Strategist for Education at Hearst
Nancy (Shonka) Padberg earned her B.S. (’88) from Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. She was a student athlete on the ISU Women’s Golf Team, member of the Kappa Delta Sorority and worked at the ISU Daily. Nancy earned her MBA from Pepperdine University in (’04).
Nancy has 20 years experience leading media firms and marketing agency clients and teams to double-digit growth while building her career in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She has an innovative, thoughtful approach to results whether serving as VP of Global Marketing for a user-generated mobile app based in Helsinki, Finland, leading an IMC Agency in Santa Monica or leading a digital marketing team at Hearst Media in San Francisco.
Nancy currently lives in San Francisco serving as a Digital Director and Strategist for Education at Hearst, one of the nation’s largest diversified media with more than 360 businesses including Hearst Castle, Hearst Ranch, ownership in A&E, ESPN, 30 TV Stations, newspapers such as The San Francisco Chronicle, 300 magazines around the world including Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Oprah and Town & Country, investments in BuzzFeed, VICE and iCrossing agency.
Nancy earned “Women Making a Difference” by The Los Angeles Business Journal and was named Top 37 Marketer in the U.S. by Ceros and 39 client and colleague recommendations on Linkedin. Nancy’s clients have included Disneyland, Whole Foods Markets, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Pillsbury, PETCO, Stanford University and Healthcare.
She served on the Board of Directors for Pepperdine University for four years, contributed articles to Mediapost and multiyear speaker at Consumer Electronic Show, “The Boomer Summit” and “Silver Summit” and ANA. Nancy hosted 21 podcasts on the best places to live in the U.S. based on education, healthcare, cost of living, weather and community development.
Nancy’s siblings graduated from ISU and daughter graduated in 2017 from the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Nancy enjoys traveling with her husband, David, and family, walking their dogs, Snickers and Buttercup, and golfing. Twitter @NancyPadberg