Director, Community Relations & Cardinals Care
As Director Community Relations, Meghan Essman oversees the day-to-day operations of the Community Relations department which includes education programs, Kids Club, Cardinals Wives activities, community correspondence, community event/initiatives, MLB Community Initiatives, Community Ticket Program, Cardinals player community initiatives, sponsor relationships and supporting Cardinals Care's charitable efforts.
Prior to joining the Cardinals Meghan spent 15 years as the Director, Fan Development & Educational Pro-grams for the Philadelphia Phillies. Her most recent roles were Assistant Professor in the Rawlings Sport Busi-ness Management Program at Maryville University and as a consultant for sport organizations.
At Maryville, Meghan developed classroom content infused with experiential learning gained through partnerships with organizations such as Rawlings and Heartland Coca-Cola.
As a consultant, Meghan worked for organizations including the St. Louis Sports Commission where she pro-moted the Musial Awards and Musial Moments program, and for the Phillies for whom she developed America at Bat: The Color of Baseball, a Negro League curriculum that has been implemented at the Phillies Urban Youth Academy and additional UYA's across MLB.
At the Phillies Meghan created and oversaw programs that focused on youth baseball/softball, health, education and women. She helped to shape the community message through print and online pieces, pitched sponsors to connect them to community programs and fulfilled contractual obligations, worked with players to engage them in community and marketing activities and was the Phillies' liaison to MLB on community initiatives.
Educational accomplishments included the creation of the Phillies Phundamentals after-school and summer camp program that uses baseball to teach and reinforce academic skills, the Phanatic About Reading literacy program for students in grades K-8 and Phillies Phitness to encourage students in grades K-12 to take steps to a healthy future.
A former collegiate softball player, Meghan furthered the game through the creation of the Youth Softball Celebration and Softball Carpenter Cup high school showcase and was instrumental in creating the Baseball 101 Clinic for Women. She also oversaw the Phillies Jr. RBI and RBI program and the team's baseball high school and college tournaments.
Meghan earned her B.A. and M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania.
She lives in Chesterfield with her husband Matt and twin daughters Carly and Alexis.