Rekha Athreya

Rekha Athreya is the Vice President of Marketing Operations at Desert Financial Credit Union. She is adept at finding insights to inform business strategy and currently works with several internal and external partners in the financial industry.

In her previous role she served as the Director of Insights at Arizona State University. She has more than 20-years experience in working with nonprofits, government, schools and most recently, the financial sector. In her career, she has always taken the lead in creating a strategic approach to marketing programs, initiatives and events. Her expertise are in the areas of market research, industry intelligence, branding, social media, campaign development, strategic messaging, analytics (channel effectiveness), development and evaluation.

Rekha is at her best managing programs, improving service delivery and effectively marketing programs so it becomes relevant and important to the constituents served. Her core strength is her ability to design or redefine organizational processes to improve efficiency. She specializes in analyzing data through the use of primary research, CRM systems, social media listening, Google analytics and email analytics to aid in data driven decision making.

In her career, Rekha has worked with numerous nonprofits including volunteer centers, nature preserves, housing organizations and charter schools. She has led the efforts to create effective volunteer programs including training nonprofit boards and councils.

She holds an MBA from Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia, with an emphasis in Marketing and Market Research. She also holds a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) degree from Arizona State University's Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions. She enrolled in the MPA program to gain a deeper understanding of how governments/nonprofits work and to learn how to become an effective administrator.

She is a writer at heart and a keen storyteller. She frequently presents at conferences, lectures and symposiums. She gives voice to her creative interest by writing blogs on various topics and frequently participates in the MOTH storytelling hour.