Pam Athan’s path into print started with an elective class in high school and a teacher who ran an actual print business out of his classroom. She was making business cards and memo pads at 16, learning to strip negatives and register plates, and spending every free period she had in that shop. From there came Farmingdale College, then RIT for a bachelor’s in printing management and sciences, and a career that took her through labels, gravure, flexo, QC, press approvals in New Jersey and Baltimore, cosmetics boxes on Long Island, and eventually to North Carolina.
Today, Pam is the account executive for print and marketing at Universal Printing — a 40-year-old family-owned shop in Durham that does everything from brochures to clinical trial kitting to custom e-commerce storefronts for universities and hospitals. What keeps her going after all these years? The fact that no two days are the same. She talks about the real meaning of showing up for clients, how knowing print production makes her a better salesperson, why she wishes she’d found her confidence sooner, and what she tells the younger women she’s mentoring now. Good conversation. Lots of ink.
1:00 — Welcome and Introduction…