The Digital Strategist

Recently named vice president, digital strategies, for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Beth Jacobs ’89 has spent more than 25 years helping companies maximize their digital and mobile businesses. She credits the strategic and critical thinking skills that she cultivated at Bucknell as a key to her success.

1. How did Bucknell shape your career?

My majors, international relations and Japanese and East Asian studies, helped me land my first job at AT&T in public affairs and trade policy.

2. What class opened your eyes the most?

My most interesting, provocative and intellectually challenging class was my senior-year IR capstone, a political theory course with Professor Tom Travis. It really forced me to go deeper analytically and think more unconventionally.

3. If you could go back to college, what would you do differently?

I would take advantage of a couple of classes in Bucknell’s top-notch management program.

4. What fun moment at Bucknell is the most memorable for you?

My junior year studying in Kyoto, Japan. It was not only an incredible, life-changing experience to be immersed in Japan for a year, with so many great memories, but also there was a sense of camaraderie, given that so many Bucknellians were in the program that year.

5. What lesson did you learn at Bucknell that you still carry with you?

Feeling encouraged to express myself without judgment. The intimacy of relatively small class sizes and the inviting nature of my professors who encouraged open discussion and debate was really empowering and gave me the confidence to engage more freely.