Tiffany Haverly is the Communications Director for Congressman Phil Roe, M.D.

DC has been so great to me over the past couple of years. I’ve been able to grow my passion for photography into a business and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without a little help from amazing people along the way. One such influencer is Ivory Zorich from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Pallavi Damani Kumar is a full-time professor in American University’s School of Communication and the Division Director for the Public Communication. Ever since I graduated as an undergraduate from American University’s School of Communication, I wanted to teach in the program. I felt like AU helped me discover my true passion in public relations and strategic communication, and teaching was a way of giving back. Eight years after graduation, after working in New York and Philadelphia, I was headed back to DC, and my first goal was to fulfill a long-held dream of mine to teach in the Public Communication division.

Dannia Hakki is a DC-based PR guru and co-owner of the entertainment, hospitality, design and fashion PR agency Moki Media. I first met lobbyist and hospitality entrepreneur, Vinoda Basnayake, in 2009. I had just moved back to my hometown of Washington, D.C. after cutting my teeth in NYC at a high profile boutique lifestyle PR agency. I had some great experience as a publicist in NYC, but at just 25 years old, I had just taken an entrepreneurial leap to start my own PR agency, MoKi Media. DC was a new market for me, and I needed clients. I remember walking into Vinoda’s downtown rooftop lounge, Eden, and feeling like I was back in NYC. I had experience with nightlife accounts. I knew what to do, and how to do it. I needed to meet the owner of this place and introduce myself. The connection was instant. He went to Gonzaga High School. I went to Georgetown Day School & The Field School. He went to Georgetown. I went to George Washington University. He was a political lobbyist by day – with a JD/MBA from Wharton Business School – and nightlife entrepreneur by night. I was definitely going to be his publicist.

Morgan Gress is Editor at 1776, and the former editor of FamousDC. A quick note: FamousDC’s current editor, Marie, asked Morgan to write today’s thankful Thursday post. Guiding influences that immediately came to her mind? Amos Snead and Josh Shultz.

Carl Ray is a professional celebrity makeup artist based in Washington, D.C. Follow him on Instagram and learn more about his work on his website. I have had plenty of advice from friends and colleagues along the way, however some of my most powerful teachings and blessings have been giving to me from FLOTUS.

Gary Adornato, founder of Varsity Sports Network in Baltimore gave me my first shot. I call it my “big break” because it was in the spring of 2008, I’d just graduated from college, and the job market was so wildly saturated that few new grads were getting jobs–the least of which, in media.