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8 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
TERRY DRAGOUMIS NICHOLSON
Marketing pro turns her talents towards finding a cure for breast cancer
WRITTEN BY SHAYLAH BROWN
12
HOLIDAY 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
GROWING UP, SHE DIDN’T KNOW
WHAT TYPE OF CAREER SHE WANT-
ED TO PURSUE AS AN ADULT. She
says that she didn’t have an idea
of exactly what she wanted to be.
However, she knew what she wanted
her life to be like. “I knew I wanted
to see the world, get a good educa-
tion, have a family, and follow my
passions and interests,” she says. SHE HAS WORKED WITH BOLD-
FACED NAMES. Dragoumis Nicholson
started her career at advertising
agency J. Walter Thompson. She then
transitioned to a career in the fash-
ion world at Cosmopolitan, maga-
zine. During her time at Vogue, she
worked with Anna Wintour; at the
now-shuttered George magazine, she
worked alongside John Kennedy Jr.
SHE LOVES NEW JERSEY AND HAS
LIVED THERE MOST OF HER LIFE.
Born and raised in Pennsylvania,
she went to college at Penn State
University. Her career in publish-
ing brought her to New York. She
commuted from Hoboken and later
moved to Short Hills, then Madison.
“I love New Jersey. It is very cosmo-
politan, has a lot of energy, theater,
arts festivals, great restaurants, and
the shore, and it’s a great place to
raise children,” she says. SHE WAS INSPIRED BY THE FASH-
ION WORLD’S COMMITMENT TO
COMMUNITY SERVICE. “At the Cure
Breast Cancer Foundation, we host
events like our annual golf outing
and other sporting events, as well
as designer trunk shows and other
fundraising events to support breast
cancer research,” she says.
SHE BELIEVES IN THE WORK
THAT THE CURE BREAST CANCER
FOUNDATION DOES. “At this founda-
tion, there is so much research going
W
hile many
people
romanticize
a particular
profession
as a child,
Terry Dragoumis Nicholson was
busy defining the type of person
she wanted to be: Someone who
follows her passions and finds a
way to give back and help others.
During her long career in pub-
lishing, she developed sales and
marketing campaigns for notable
fashion and lifestyle magazines
such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s
Bazaar and George. Later, she
was the public relations manager
for Neiman Marcus, where she
was involved in store events,
fashion shows and charitable
giving for the luxury retailer.
Her pivot into the nonprofit
world has proven to be a labor
of love, because it allows her to
give back as a career. Dragoumis
Nicholson, a resident of Madison,
is Executive Director of the Cure
Breast Cancer Foundation, which
is based in New Jersey. Although
she says the two fields are not
directly related, she uses her mar-
keting and event planning skills
to promote the many events she
curates and executes for the foun-
dation. Her role is mostly event-
based fundraising, and she relates
working with high-level donors to
her time spent working with top
clients in magazine publishing.
Here are eight things you may
not know about her.