Marian Magazine - Marian High School

“My own feelings about Marian were echoed in so many of the comments weheard. I have always said I owe any leadership qualities I have to Marian.”Mary Lynn Coyle ‘66Impacting the Marianleaders of tomorrowMarian not only offered Mary Lynn Coyle‘66 the leadership skills she needed for life,but also the opportunity to put them touse professionally as Marian’s first publicrelations director. Since then, she hasserved as the vice president of corporatecommunications for A.T. Kearney, Inc., Sabre,Inc. and AMR Corporation. In 2000, shelaunched her own corporate branding andcommunications consulting firm.She has spent her entire career in theworld of public relations and corporatecommunications with an emphasis onbranding. According to Mary Lynn, her careerstarted long before she graduated fromCreighton University, earned a masters injournalism from Northwestern University, orreceived her MBA from Lake Forest GraduateSchool of Management. It started at Marian.“Marian provided an environmentwhere I was comfortable being me.I was so comfortable with both thestudents and the staff, that I neverhesitated to challenge myself and getinvolved in activities where I had tostep outside of my comfort zone.”Sharon Slattery ‘75“Marian played an important part in mycommunications career,” she said. “Marian’ssupportive environment allowed me to try avariety of activities and also begin my careerin journalism and communications whilestill in high school.” She served as the Marianrepresentative for a local radio station andas an editor of the teen section for a weeklynewspaper chain, managing 15 other highschool reporters.Starting her professional career at Marianimpacted Mary Lynn just as much as heryears spent as a student. “As a young staffmember, I was encouraged to introduce newideas and programs and was given manyresponsibilities,” she said. “Sister Adolorata,the principal at the time and my boss, trustedme to get the job done. All of this combinedtogether to build my confidence andleadership skills at an early age.”Recently, Mary Lynn generously offered herexpertise and leadership to help Marianrefine its brand message by undertaking acomprehensive brand strategy study. “Thegoal of the study was to help Marian betterunderstand its promise to its most importantaudiences and the Omaha community atlarge,” she said.By leading Marian through this study, shehelped the school clarify what makes itunique and valuable. “I have done morethan 50 branding projects, but I have neverexperienced the singularity of commentswe received from almost everyone whotalked with us,” she said. “My own feelingsabout Marian were echoed in so many of thecomments we heard. I have always said I oweany leadership qualities I have to Marian.”Thanks to her work with Marian’s brandpromise – empowering young women tosucceed as confident, independent, thinkingleaders – the message became crystal clearand can be seen in action through womenlike Ozy, Kara, Sharon, Mary and Mary Lynn.18