Dear Readers: Although there is a change in leadership, the heart and soul of The Equiery will remain the same.  The women you’ve come to know and love, who are the core of the publication, are here to serve you, and each is featured over a span of 4 weeks. I am so privileged to have had these women on my team, and I know and trust that they will continue to serve our readers, advertisers and community well. Before I go, I would like you to know a little bit more about who they really are, their roles within the team, and why I admire each so very much. – Crystal Brumme Pickett, Publisher/Editor 1991-2017

Emily Nessel – 9 years with The Equiery

Emily Nessel celebrates 9 years with The Equiery; IJK Photo

Customer Service/Digital Marketing Manager

The Equiery has long hosted summer interns, from college, high school–even the occasional middle schooler. Of course, one always hopes that maybe one will stick, maybe one of the really good ones will become part of the team. Mostly, we watch them move on, usually outside and beyond the horse world. Nevertheless, we hope we will find that diamond in the rough that suits us–and we her (or him).

Well, Emily found us.

Emily Stangroom was home for the summer from Centenary College in New Jersey. Her mom suggested she reach out to us, which she did. Much to our surprise, she made the long trek from Bel Air (north east of Baltimore) to Lisbon (west of Baltimore) almost every day. Wow. Then she came back the next summer, while she was looking for her “real job”! While she was looking for her “real job,” we just kept throwing odds and ends at her…and she just kept batting away, hitting and scoring each time. She would cheerfully embrace it, learn it, master it, and click on, adding to her growing repertoire of skills. Finally, it occurred to us, maybe this was meant to be her “real job!” She seemed to think so too, and so in March of 2011, Emily officially became an EQer!

With her natural internal metronome and her propensity for checking tasks off of lists, Emily has become the quiet heartbeat of the office, working with Katherine Rizzo to ensure the entire office stays on task, processing art and classifieds, and adroitly and good-naturedly handling whatever customer service or technical issues that arise.

Of course, she could not keep up that commute. We found her and her retired Thoroughbred, “I’m a PickPocket,” a home on a local farm. Emily had acquired Pocket in 2002 when she was in the eighth grade; together they were involved with the Easy Riders 4-H Club in Harford County. The pair did some local hunter shows, took lessons, did a lot of trail riding and just “hung out and had fun!” Pocket passed away in the winter of 2014.

Meanwhile, Emily Stangroom became Emily Nessel, and husband Chuck moved onto the farm with her. Whenever she can, Emily ventures into Washington D.C. or Baltimore City to indulge her passion for Broadway musicals (which she shares with this soon-to-be retired publisher).

I am grateful for Emily’s even temperament that serves as a ballast to help keep our Equiery ship on a steady keel through the ebbs and tides, crests and troughs of the production cycle, enabling us to ensure fulfillment of all the multi-media marketing aspects of our clients contracts even after the book as gone to press and the staff is exhausted. Emily is one of the most consistently good-natured, pragmatic and ethical women I have ever known, and it has been a pleasure watching her quietly blossom at The Equiery.