We caught up with Alberta Lee, a Michigan native who just so happens to be the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Vice President of Human Resources.
After spending much of her career in higher education, Alberta decided to make a change and shift to sports and entertainment. Starting with the Cavs in the fall of 2014 was the perfect introduction to the passion for sports that’s alive in Cleveland. Witnessing the Cavs’ first NBA championship in franchise history, Alberta saw firsthand what it’s like to live in a city that’s energized and full of life.
Learn more about Alberta’s experience working downtown for the Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and how the organization prepared for welcoming fans back to the beloved venue during Covid-19 in our latest spotlight.
First, what do you like best about working for the Cavs and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse? What characteristics set the organization apart?
What I like most is being able to work fully within my capacity of talent and contribution. The Cavaliers’ organization embraces and welcomes a real team atmosphere, one that comes in every day with energy. We are obsessed with delivering our best every day. Everything about our culture here revolves around the guest experience, enjoyment, and passion.
We are driving a championship-caliber mindset and I love that our fans, guests, teams, and community partners love this about us. We feel perfectly primed to be that fierce source of ultimate engagement for our community, and we love to be that for Cleveland.
In my previous field of higher education, there’s a mission and vision that deeply connects to communities. I see how that continues in this space as well. For the Cavaliers, we’re more than just basketball. We’re also incredibly civic-minded and engaged in the community. That continues to resonate with me.
While we do sports and entertainment, we do it from a lens of wanting there to be a space for everybody to have a piece of this great building and a reason for all enjoy this fabulous community resource. We always strive to make sure we have a wide range of events and shows in our building that embody that focus.
The characteristics of our team members that drive our open culture is being relationship-oriented and inclusive of all voices.
In light of COVID-19, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse took special steps to ensure a safe return-to-venue plan. This involved developing new Health and Safety Protocols, as well as receiving endorsements from the Cleveland Clinic, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, and the WELL Building Institute.
Can you talk a little more about Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s COVID-19 response and how operations shifted during Covid-19?
Like so many other organizations, we moved into a high level of attentiveness to safety and making sure our team members knew that that was our priority. Even though we were working remotely, our work never stopped. We are fortunate that we have a workforce able to keep the work moving and keep it seamless.
Now, we’ve been able to welcome guests back into our building, which means many of our team members have returned as well. We’re doing this incrementally, still with a focus on safety, and with an amazing energy to do all that we can to signal to everybody that we are back. And not only that, but that we are ready for everybody to safely return to us when the time is right.
People are just ready to see us do. We spent a lot of time with our team members during COVID-19 through our team member live streams and day-to-day communications so that everybody had the ability to harness that energy. You really fight to bring your business back; that’s what our community partners are doing as well as all businesses in Greater Cleveland. At Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, we like to think we lead from the front and we’re proud of that.
What do you love most about Cleveland and the culture here?
I love that it has a large city feel to it. We just think and operate on a much larger scale than most people would expect. It’s easy to look past the fact that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is here and there are so many great professional sports teams. Downtown is so vibrant and refreshing.
Cleveland is a city that offers something to everybody. You don't have to work hard to find it. When you’re driving into the city and look at all the billboards, you know that something’s happening. It just adds a level of energy that I think is awesome. And I also like that it’s a city that welcomes you to get out in it, to get on your feet. That’s one of the things we love about being where we are at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse—you can walk over to Tower City or to Public Square for lunch. I really do like that about our city.