By Lauren Simpson
Cornell Athletic Communications
At a time in which our country has been thrust into a world unlike what most of us have experienced before, the ability to adapt has become a valuable skill. Cornell women's cross country and track and field extraordinaire Loren Mooney '93 has epitomized what it means to be flexible over the course of her professional career, cherishing the diverse experiences that have taken her to where she is today.
An English and history major at Cornell, Mooney struggled to pinpoint exactly what she wanted to do post-graduation. It wasn't until an internship with Cornell's alumni magazine that Mooney discovered something for which she had a real interest.
"After interning for the alumni magazine for about a year, I was really digging the magazine thing because I got to learn new things and then communicate them to other people," Mooney said. "A few years after that, I finally worked up the nerve to move to New York City and start a career in the magazine world."
What started out as a passion for magazine writing took Mooney on an adventure, with no two jobs that she pursued being exactly alike. From stints at Sports Illustrated, to Reader's Digest, to Bicycling magazine, and beyond, Mooney's career has been far from the ordinary, and she's embraced having to adapt to the opportunity at hand.
During her time in the magazine industry, Mooney did everything from interviews with professional cyclists at the Tour de France to testing Ron Popeil's Ronco Showtime Rotisserie for an "As seen on TV" feature series that she wrote for Reader's Digest. And these just scratch the surface.
"When I was a fact-checker at Sports Illustrated, I once had to have Evel Knievel paged out of a hotel casino to fact-check the article that Sports Illustrated was doing about him," Mooney said. "I've had a wide range of weird experiences."
Of all the experiences she's gathered, perhaps Mooney's favorite happened when she worked for Bicycling magazine and had the opportunity to participate in the L'Etape du Tour de France.
"Basically, the week before the Tour de France comes through, real people get to go and do one of the hard mountain stages of the Tour de France," Mooney said. "It was a stage that was probably 107 miles long and it included two of the really tough climbs in the French Pyrenees. It was just such an epic day, and I was just crushed by the end of it."
Despite a long, very successful career in the magazine world, Mooney was not blind to the fact that the industry was trending in the wrong direction. Instead of panicking over what she should do next, Mooney pivoted her skills in a different direction.
"After a string of jobs realizing that the industry was in decline, I ended up freelancing for a while, and one of my clients was Stanford's Business School, where I started doing a little bit of management and leadership writing and editing," Mooney said.
It was this job that helped Mooney get recruited by the San Francisco-based start-up Jhana (which was acquired by Franklin Covey in 2017), where Mooney serves as the Senior Product Director today.
With Jhana's primary mission of "helping managers be better people leaders," Mooney's time as a standout on Cornell's women's cross country and track and field teams undoubtedly shines through in her current role.
An All-American on both the cross country course and the track, Mooney captained both Cornell squads during her senior campaign with the Big Red. She was the runner-up at the 1992 Heptagonal Championships, helping Cornell's women's cross country teams to back-to-back team titles in 1991 and 1992. The team also finished fourth at the NCAA Championship in each of those seasons, the program's highest finishes to date. A 12-time All-Ivy performer, six-time individual Heptagonal Champion, and six-time national qualifier between cross country and track and field, Mooney's leadership qualities carried right on into her professional life — even if it was unknowingly.
"At the time, I probably didn't realize it or break it down to understand what I was doing, but I think that there are a lot of fundamentals that I picked up and learned through those experiences, having been a team captain and a leader for Cornell track and cross country," said Mooney.
A 2003 Cornell Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Mooney remarks that former Big Red women's track and field and cross country head coach Lou Duesing had great impact on the leader she has become today.
"I've had the thought, when I look at what makes a good leader and a good manager, that Lou Duesing, who was my coach, actually was an incredible manager," said Mooney. "Now that I look back, I realize just how much I learned from him."
From her days in the magazine industry to her current role of helping people become better leaders, Mooney is a true example of blooming where you are planted. No matter what job she ends up taking on next, she will undoubtedly rise to the occasion.
