Meet a WEXer: Olivia Vogt

Olivia Vogt always finds a way to utilize their skills and passions, whether through being a published author, a professional artist, or working at WEX.

They are a pre-sales proposal writer at WEX, based out of West Fargo, ND and serve as the communications chair for the WEX Pride employee resource group (ERG). They work remotely alongside their wife, Sara, who is also a WEXer. Just a few weeks ago, Olivia celebrated their one year anniversary at WEX, reaching milestones and completing many projects along the way.

Working at WEX

In their role, Olivia proposes WEX products to clients and partners with the goal of helping them find the perfect solution for their business needs. They work alongside a team, which has helped them gain their footing as they learn the ins and outs of the business world, having transitioned to their current position two months ago. Previously, they worked as a solution analyst at WEX, which is a role that required research and critical thinking skills to provide satisfactory answers to client questions. Moreover, Olivia leaned on their interpersonal skills to collaborate with others and translate complicated information into something that clients could easily understand.

In Olivia’s work with the WEX Pride ERG, they work on different areas of public and internal communications through the website, emails, and graphics. “It just really feels like the intersection of all of my areas of expertise,” says Olivia. Currently, they are working on Summer of Pride programming for the ERG, including some in-person events near WEX offices and virtual events for remote and hybrid employees. That way, WEXers everywhere can have a chance to participate.

Olivia values diversity and equity, and appreciates how that is reflected in the values of WEX. They describe, “There’s just something very comforting about seeing pride flags and events on the website for WEX on my calendar for events. The people in those ERG meetings are just on another level. I just met them recently but I still feel like I could tell them anything and they would be there for anything with me.”

A journey through academia

Olivia first earned an undergraduate degree in strategic communication, and then went on to earn a master’s degree in communication with a focus on media and a doctorate in gender studies and queer studies. With years in academia and a breadth of expertise, they have researched and contributed to their field in a variety of ways. Olivia’s journey to this point, however, was not always clear from the start.

“It was not that I always knew what I wanted to do. I have always been someone who catches passions and chases them until I run out of breath, and then catches a new one,” says Olivia. All throughout their life, they have possessed a strong talent for mathematics, and as a result entered their undergraduate studies with a chemistry major. However, they quickly realized that they did not enjoy that course of study despite their talent for it. As a result, Olivia switched their major to strategic communication because it encompassed their love for writing and drawing while also providing financial benefit. In their new major, they enjoyed learning how to write white papers and press releases, design advertisements, and make stylistic choices on public-facing documents.

Towards the end of Olivia’s undergraduate career, they interned at a graphic design studio but realized that it did not satisfy their passions. “It still just wasn’t clicking for me. There was still something in the back of my mind where I was like, ‘This is fine, you could do this, but this is not satisfying you on the level you want,’” says Olivia. For this reason, Olivia began pursuing graduate studies to build upon their skills in researching and writing. Graduate school was an enjoyable experience for them, one which they look back on with fond memories. “It was a really fun journey. It was honestly like a dream come true,” Olivia says. “They were paying me to teach, they were paying me to learn, they were paying me to write, and that was my dream come true.”

Avenues of research

Olivia has engaged in a lot of research in their academic field and has written published pieces, with more pieces that are currently under review for future publishing. One such work is a book that looks at Seth MacFarlane shows from a gendered family perspective and offers a discussion on the effectiveness of satire. Olivia also wrote a book chapter about the cartoon Adventure Time, which explores the character named BMO and their embodiment of queerness. Olivia describes how these works are a “kind of experiencing and looking at that idea of finding joy based on whatever interests you versus what people think of you or kind of project onto you.”

In one journal article, Olivia and their colleagues researched the use of emojis by college instructors and performed a survey experiment. In the study, people were presented with an example email written from the perspective of a professor who was greeting their students at the beginning of a new semester. The email included text stating the book requirements, reminding students to read the syllabus, and outlining the class location and time. The independent variable, that which Olivia and their colleagues modified, was the email signature; the professor’s name would either be accompanied by one of a few select emojis or nothing at all.

In that experiment, students answered questions like “How did that make you feel? What if that actually happened to you? What would be your reaction?” Olivia and their colleagues measured a multitude of factors, such as how the emoji use impacted students’ perceived view of the instructor’s credibility or availability. “The unexpected and interesting aspect for me is people’s need to assign gender or assume gender of another person especially when there are no signals to tell you what’s going on,” says Olivia, since some of the emails included signature names that had no gender implied.

“We ended up presenting at a conference because it was just a really fun study. Everyone who contributed to the paper instructed at a college level. We were all of younger generations that might theoretically send a smiley face emoji in a welcome email to students,” says Olivia. “Be mindful of your emoji use when you’re the leader versus when you are maybe emailing or chatting with colleagues.”

Traveling across the country and world

Olivia grew up in the small town of Detroit Lakes, MN, which is known for its gorgeous outdoor environment and abundance of recreational activities. The name Detroit Lakes has French origins, as the French word “détroit” translates to “strait” in English and is used to describe the city’s waters. Olivia has traveled broadly in the U.S., both for work and pleasure. This includes long road trips visiting unique towns along the way. Though, in Olivia’s opinion, their coolest travels have been to Finland, where Sara is from. Together, they have visited Finland a couple of times and have plans to return regularly.

In the future, Olivia also wants to visit Panama for a chance to explore the common thread that connects multiple generations of Olivia’s family. Olivia’s grandmother emigrated from Panama to the U.S., leaving behind family members that Olivia has never met or even spoken to. “I heard all of these stories from her growing up and it just sounds like it would be very informative to me about where she came from, and in turn where my dad came from, and in turn where I came from.”

Advice to their 18-year-old self

“Lead with curiosity and empathy for yourself and for others. Assume the best of others but also assume the best of yourself,” says Olivia. “When you assume the best of others, they usually do have good intentions. For the few people that don’t, shame on them. There will be problems in life, things can be hard, but you can work through it and you’ll learn from it.”

They add, “I feel a majority of people are too harsh on themselves. They’re not gentle with themselves. They don’t want to see their flaws, or if they do see their flaws, they beat themselves up about it. If you’re curious and you’re empathetic, you can say, ‘Why do I have that gap in my knowledge? Why am I not so great at this skill and how can I make it better?’” With such invaluable tools, Olivia describes how we can all live truthfully to ourselves and use that to positively impact others around us.

WEX is a leading, global fintech solutions provider, simplifying payments and back-end business processes in the fleet management, benefits management, and corporate and travel payments areas. WEX values diversity and equity and is an equal opportunity employer. Search jobs on our careers site.