Truckload Authority - August/September 2018

An academic star is born, as a young Kathryn Sanner
is about to head off to her first day of school.
High school graduation day for Kathryn Sanner, left,
and her friends Morgan Eckenrod, Kelsey Seymour
and Mariah Seymour.
magna cum laude in less than the traditional four years.
She did, however, realize that she wasn’t nearly
interested enough in things like torts and other
aspects of law to make it a career. Instead, she
majored in political science.
With this move she managed to include some travel
into her academic itinerary.
In her junior year, she spent a semester in Prague,
where she studied European Union policy and Eastern
and Central European politics. She even learned how
to speak passable Czech. She also took advantage of
the continent’s convenient transportation to take side
trips to several other countries.
In 2014, shortly after completing her bachelor’s
degree, she began working for the Association of
National Advertisers (ANA) as an administrative
assistant. A year later she was promoted to legislative
analyst.
At 23, she was working with industrial giants,
such as Hershey and Proctor & Gamble. After
handling that job for about a year, she decided,
sure, she could add a full-time grad school course
load into her life, so she went back to George
Washington University to get her master’s degree in
public policy.
Somehow, amid the demands of work and school,
Sanner found the time to find a boyfriend, Nathan
Pobre, who helped her take advantage of the little
“me time” she had during that period. He’s also
contributed to her lifelong world tour.
Nathan’s family is from Guam, and his father is
originally from the Philippines. Since they’ve been
together, Sanner has traveled with Nathan’s family to
both places. Chalk up another continent.
Finding her place, at her own pace
With her master’s degree now in hand and her new
job at TCA, this spring has marked a transition into a
new chapter, one that promises a downshift back to a
more balanced life.
“Trying to find hobbies is my next challenge,”
Sanner said.
She has picked up one new hobby in the last couple
years — competitive bocce.
“Now that I’m out of school, I’m full into bocce,”
she said.
Bocce? That’s a game you’d expect to see
gravel-voiced, cigar-champing old guys with names
like Carmine and Louie playing “back in the old
neighborhood,” not young professionals playing on
the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol.
But that is where you’ll find Sanner and her friends
Thursday evenings, spring, summer and fall.
“It’s pretty neat to be playing bocce right in front
of one of the nation’s most important landmarks,”
Sanner said.
It began about three years ago, she explained. One of
her sorority sisters joined an alumni group that featured
a “social sports league.” One of the sports offered was
bocce. One by one, Sanner and her friends gave it a try,
part of the fun being that it was a “totally random thing.”
“None of us knew anything about bocce going in,”
she said. “We kind of thought, ‘isn’t this a game that
our grandparents played?’”
They had so much fun they decided to form their
own team and joined a league.
“It’s not super competitive,” Sanner said, though
she’s quick to note that they’ve won the championship
Q & A With Kathryn Sanner
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: February 1, 1992, in
Brookville, Pennsylvania
MY TRADEMARK EXPRESSION IS: “Will do!”
MOST HUMBLING EXPERIENCE: Losing my passport
before my flight home from Guatemala
PEOPLE SAY I REMIND THEM OF: Kate Middleton
I HAVE A PHOBIA OF: Spiders
MY GUILY PLEASURE IS: Cheetos
THE PEOPLE I’D INVITE TO MY FANTASY DINNER
PARTY: George Washington, J.K. Rowling, Amy Poehler and
Alex Trebek
I WOULD NEVER WEAR: Overalls
MY GREATEST PROBLEM AS A PROFESSIONAL IS:
Embracing the “hurry up and wait” of advocacy
A GOAL I HAVE YET TO ACHIEVE: Traveling to every
continent
THE LAST BOOK I READ: “My Own Words” by Ruth Bader
Ginsburg
LAST MOVIE I SAW: “Black Panther”
MY FAVORITE SONG: “Follow Your Arrow,” by Kacey
Musgraves
IF I’VE LEARNED ONE THING IN LIFE, IT WOULD BE:
Your relationship with your family is irreplaceable
THE THING ABOUT MY OFFICE IS: It’s still pretty sparse!
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Genuine
36 Truckload Authority | www.Truckload.org TCA 2018