‘Dee’-Light-Filled Colleague, Communicator 

In the early days of the franchise, Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke was always pleased to cite a mathematical fact when introducing colleague De’Aira Anderson, happily noting “Dee was one of 567 applicants!” vying for her communications role with the team. The choice turned out to be one of executive Katie Townsend’s shrewdest moves as NHL Seattle morphed into the Kraken and a Stanley Cup Playoffs contender into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics break.

“Tod still does it,” said Anderson, laughing during a deep yet lighthearted conversation during a mid-January team road trip. “He tells people that Katie [Townsend, Chief Communications Officer] went through all those resumes.”

Townsend confirms: “I felt I had to look at every single one, even from people I already knew would be applying. Dee wrote one of the best cover letters I’ve ever read. We were building a communications team in a different way back then [2020], with people who could help us tell stories beyond hockey and not just to the sports media. We were pitching stories about sustainability, transportation, and branding, among others.”

Along with other colleagues who were part of the hiring process, Townsend remembers being impressed with Anderson’s demeanor during a required PowerPoint presentation on PR strategy via Zoom. For her part, Anderson said she had to “kick out my roommates from the common space” of their tiny apartment to present from the kitchen.

“She was very likable,” said Townsend. “But I have to admit I was confused about her age. She was obviously young, but she showed a maturity beyond her years. That went on to help her form strong relationships with people at other Seattle sports teams, which we needed. These days, she has transitioned into great relationships with our players and their families.”

Anderson worked in grassroots hockey roles at the University of Pittsburgh during undergraduate years and Syracuse University as a grad student with a long-range dream to work in hockey. She founded a long-running internship program at Syracuse, still mentoring future staff in the sports industry.

After earning her master’s degree, Anderson elected to start her career with a corporate public relations agency in New York that specialized in enterprise technology, or what she calls “the Slack of the world.” She was an account executive making inroads with reporters and editors from Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the Associated Press.

‘It’s PR, Not ER’

“During those PR days back in New York, people at the agency liked to say, ‘It’s PR, not ER’ as a way to say not everything’s an emergency,” said Anderson, Kraken Senior Manager, Media Relations, “ I used to joke I know exactly what that’s like and say ‘you guys are correct’ because I actually worked in an ER!”

Wait, what?

In between her academic and hockey staff pursuits at Pitt plus Syracuse’s renowned Newhouse School of Public Communications, Anderson took a year in between to address family matters in Cincinnati and, candidly explaining, “to kind of adjust to life.” She worked in admissions at Christ Hospital, where she was born. Let’s agree she saw firsthand that emergencies are way different than PR deadlines or wrangling interviews with the Kraken players who enjoy her as much as the rest of us, happily fortunate to be her colleague.

“I started working day shifts,” said Anderson. “By the time I finished, I was working overnight shifts from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. I saw some of the craziest things come into the ER. Dead people by overdose came in. Moms are about to give birth, which are my favorite stories. I'd watch a mom come in, ready to go, with a panicked husband. If everything goes well, some of the parents I ended up seeing will be down at my desk before leaving. They show me the baby, they're going home. Every time that happened, I always thought, ‘what a cool day.’ ”

When Chirping is Part of Your Job Description

Anderson takes those ER lessons to heart every day at Kraken Community Iceplex, Climate Pledge Arena, and NHL rinks across North America as she connects media folks to Kraken players and coaches.

“This is not saving lives here,” said Anderson, who dresses the part of expressing her upbeat and confident personality. “Yeah, we're having fun. It's a sport. Sometimes it's serious, and sometimes you’ve got to do the hard, less fun work.

“But I try to bring levity to what we do every day. I think the guys [players] appreciate that. I don’t treat it as transactional, like, ‘Hey, can you do this for me?’ I meet the players as people. We joke, we chirp each other. We've learned a lot about each other over the last couple of years [when Anderson switched to working hockey operations full-time from her previous split hockey/corporate role]. I use all of that to help do my job.”

Supportive Family, Proud Family

The strong woman who traverses relationships with NHL players and coaches credits her mother with early lessons in being self-assured and, no small thing, being yourself. The latter is something we all work on and all admire when it shines through with someone like Anderson.

“Self-respect was on a learning curve for me,” said Anderson, laughing again. “I remember my mom would say, ‘De’Aira, you need to grow a thick skin.’ I used to cry all the time as a kid because I just loved all my people and all my friends. It takes the learning of life to know not everybody's actually your friend, or maybe not everything is what it seems to be. I was a really emotional kid. I'm still a pretty emotional adult. I’ve learned to regulate it a little bit better.

“For what seemed like the longest time, I didn’t understand what ‘grow a thick skin’ meant. But working through multiple different types of environments, from customer service in retail [summer jobs] to the ER to the corporate PR agency to the sports industry, you really learn a lot about how to approach people. It's the picking of your battles and deciding when, ‘Hey, I’ve got to draw a line here, this is not something that we can do or not something that I'm okay with ... I just let that roll off now. But it took a lot to get there."

Anderson’s father and brother have become Kraken fans through her. Her dad has several Kraken jerseys and “always wants whatever new one comes out.” Her brother is a Matty Beniers fan. Her mom traveled to Seattle for the 2023 playoffs.

“My family is very proud,” said Anderson, when asked about her loved ones’ take on her job. “That includes both of my parents and my brother, who spent some time chatting with Matty when he and my dad came to a road game. My brother is obsessed with Matty now.”

Her Hockey Origins Story

While Pittsburgh was a hockey nirvana during college with the Pitt hockey club and the NHL Penguins, she fell in love with the sport in Raleigh, N.C., when her family lived there during her high school years. The family moved several times because her dad worked contract jobs after he formally left the Navy.

“I had a really good friend named Dani who was obsessed with the [NHL] Hurricanes,” said Anderson. “We played softball together. One of the ‘Canes Swedish players, Nic Wallen, his daughter played with us. Dani really wanted me to go to a game. I didn't totally understand hockey’s appeal. We went to a ‘Canes-Boston Bruins game, and I was hooked ... In fact, for my 16th birthday, my dad signed me up for the NHL Network package so I could watch more live games.

“I thought, “What is this crazy sport I've never seen before? I'd been exposed only to the ‘big 3’ [baseball, basketball, football]. I didn't play a ton of sports growing up. My background is really in theater and art. I was only playing softball because, truthfully, my dad really loved playing baseball growing up. I picked it up at Apex High [in Raleigh,] and I was good at it.”

The theater-kid in Anderson emerged early: “In pictures of me as a kid, I always had a microphone in my hand. I was performing, putting on imaginary shows in my bedroom. I had this weird combination keyboard/CD player/ microphone thing that I would sing into and sometimes pretend I was accepting an award.

“I did theater in middle school and high school ... I loved the community of it. Of course, everyone wants to have a leading role, yada yada. But I simply loved being with a group of people. We performed ‘Footloose’ my senior year. I'll never forget. There was some drama, and so many of our seniors quit the show because they didn't get roles that they liked. I ended up playing five roles in that show ...if that doesn't say anything about the type of person I am, then I don't know what does.”

The theater kid remains: Anderson has signed up for two different sets of acting classes during this month’s Olympics break, one starts weekly at the local Freehold Theatre Lab/Studio. The other is a “boutique course” over the next couple of weeks when work slows down a bit before the March and April stretch run for the postseason.

“I’m looking forward to the classes,” said Anderson. “It’s one of the places where I feel most genuine.”

One telling note about Anderson as an athlete: No one who knows softball will be surprised that Anderson was a shortstop with good range and a throwing arm. It’s a position that requires charisma, swagger, and skills. What might catch friends and colleagues off-balance is that she was a left-handed shortstop, not the norm in softball/baseball due to the efficiency of throwing to first base and second base. Her dad thought first base was the more logical position, but Anderson’s coaches insisted they “liked me where I was.”

Wearing Representation on Her Sleeve(s)

It’s Black History Month, and Anderson will break out her Black Girls Hockey Club and Kraken swag from the franchises’ now five and counting annual Black Hockey History game nights. Like so many of us who worked for the Kraken before announcing a name and/or playing a single game, the senior manager is grateful to work for an organization making inroads with people of color as fans, plus to even more importantly, positively impacting local underserved communities.

“Especially right now, there's so much conversation around people belonging in this space [associated with the Kraken and philanthropic One Roof Foundation]. That’s various diverse groups, whether it be racial, sexual orientation, the way you grew up, where you're from, your financial status, all of those things. I think they matter. We've made an effort and continue to make an effort, to open our arms to anyone who wants to be a part of the Kraken community, the PNW hockey community and beyond.

“It means a lot. It makes me proud to be a part of it,” said Anderson. “I see it firsthand when I'm on the road. I'll meet people and they're like, ‘Oh my gosh. you're with the team? I've never seen anyone like you [with an NHL team]’ ... I always say, I don't want to be the only one doing specifically in my role. There are plenty of wonderful Black women in this sport, but less so to do what I do, travel with the team, be where we are playing. I would love to see more. It starts with just opening the doors to people and getting them into the sport.”