Cristie Gates, Member of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association

Growing up in Columbia, Missouri, and later, as a teenager on the eastern seaboard, Cristie filled the tomboy niche in an all-girl family. She was always enjoying the great outdoors and was an active 4-Her. Her dad, then a state 4-H staffer himself, taught her how to shoot, but that was back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Cristie had marked her 30th birthday before she ever went hunting.

Her bachelor’s degree in mass communications landed her jobs in radio as a news anchor and eventually in marketing and advertising. In this role, she worked for Edmonds Associates, a Washington, D.C. company, on political advertising for the NRA. The more knowledgeable she became about the Second Amendment fight, the more she realized how those rights were being infringed upon every day.

Cristie’s experience landed her a five-minute commute right to the doors of Benelli USA. She certainly didn’t always visualize herself as a hunter, and even in her position as Media Manager for Benelli USA, it’s certainly not a requirement. However, she is the first woman in her position at Benelli to actually participate in and find the hunting aspect of her job exciting and fulfilling.

Cristie resides in Waldorf, MD with her husband Bill and two daughters, Sydney, 11, and Hannah, 9. Active with her girls in Girl Scouts, she hopes to pass down her conservation values and her love of the outdoors.