Newhouse Alumna Serves Hometown Community Through Work With the Buffalo Bills Foundation
Growing up on a cattle farm in Alden, New York, a rural community 30 minutes east of Buffalo, gave Morgan Foss G’20 an understanding of agriculture, food production and life on a farm.
The master’s degree in public relations Foss graduated with from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications gave her a strong foundation of communication, writing, relationship-building and strategic thinking.
Today, she puts it all together as program manager for the Buffalo Bills Foundation, the nonprofit arm of her hometown football franchise. The foundation supports a wide breadth of initiatives dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Western New York region, but its primary focus is addressing child hunger, food access and supporting healthy eating.
“Buffalo is the sixth most segregated metropolitan region in the country and 1 in 5 children—1 in 8 people overall—are food insecure,” Foss says, illuminating the importance of her work with the foundation. “There are many food deserts within the city and in surrounding communities, despite there being many agricultural areas, like where I grew up.”
The Bills Foundation supports several nonprofit organizations and programs that uplift the food system and provide healthy foods to underserved families. Foss is one of three employees who liaise with the foundation’s board of directors to respond to funding requests and direct resources to the many hunger-fighting organizations doing the work.
“The Bills organization has such a large platform and influence in the Western New York region. So in this position, I can connect the community’s needs with resources and bring awareness to specific causes.”
A Pandemic-Inspired Pivot
While Foss was always drawn to nonprofit and community-based work, she went to Newhouse intent on entering entertainment public relations after completing an undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama.
In the spring of 2020, she was planning to visit Los Angeles for the entertainment immersion experience and was pursuing an internship in Nashville with Sony Music Entertainment, and then … we all know what happened next.
“All of a sudden I was finishing up my master’s degree, teaching undergraduate courses online and doing a virtual internship all from my childhood bedroom while simultaneously working on my family farm,” Foss says.
Not only were her personal plans put on hold, but the entire PR and entertainment industry was a question mark as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. With so much uncertainty, Foss began looking for opportunities closer to home, ultimately leading to her dream career with the Bills.
“It was a crazy time and while many businesses closed, my family farm and the agriculture industry trudged forward to ensure food was produced and stocked on shelves,” says Foss. “The pandemic certainly changed the trajectory of my career, but I’m grateful for it.” She emphasizes that her experience in 2020 built life skills that have wildly benefited her career—including adaptability, organization, being innovative with her time and space and the ability to build relationships through a screen.