30 Years of Making the Mariners Home

Ingrid Russell-Narcisse, the Mariners' senior director of corporate partnerships strategy & activation, occupies an office that uniquely reflects her 30-year tenure with the organization. Walking into the space, it immediately feels like Ingrid Russell-Narcisse. Music at varying decibels playing from the speakers, an oversized Mariners schedule filled in with handwritten notes, her infectious laugh echoing off the walls and media guides from the past few decades stacked on the shelves. Photos are taped to her doors and scattered around the room. Shots of her colleagues and Mariners legends throughout the decades, her signature smile shining in each. It’s warm, vibrant and lived in. The door is almost always open.

Within minutes of observing the space and speaking with Ingrid, it’s evident how embedded her spirit is into the core of what makes the Mariners' front office tick. She is a pillar and mentor to many. Put simply, she is a force, inextricably linked in the culture of the organization, a place she refers to as “home.”

In contrast to her warm and welcoming demeanor, a sense of home and community was a feeling Russell-Narcisse spent her childhood seeking. She is the daughter of a veteran and spent her childhood moving around the country and starting anew. Born in Hawaii, she lived in Alabama, Florida and California, until her family settled in Tacoma, Wash., when she was in high school. At each new school, she had to start over. As the new girl, being on the outside felt familiar.

“At first, I hated it because I couldn’t build relationships. I never felt at home, because I was constantly moving around. But now, I’m so grateful I had to do that because now I can walk into a room, make fast friends and make people comfortable. I can engage people in conversation,” Russell-Narcisse said.

Sports provided her with a sense of stability, with a passion for track and field that eventually expanded to include basketball.

“I started playing basketball basically in high school,” Ingrid recalled. “People always talk about how sports can build community. Sports are one of those things that even though I never felt at home, sometimes when I first moved, sports were a thing that grounded me. I’d think this is no different than Alabama. This is no different than Sacramento. A huge part of any success I've had, life lessons as I’ve grown, I got from sports.”

After her family moved to Tacoma, Ingrid fell in love with the Pacific Northwest.

“For the first time I felt like this is where I'm supposed to be. That was the first time I felt like I was walking into my purpose. You cannot say enough about this place with the water, the air, the mountains and everything. I always call it God’s country,” Russell-Narcisse said.

She turned down scholarship offers at other colleges to attend the University of Washington where she was a walk-on for the women’s basketball team.

“I only applied to the UW. I felt like that moment, that was what I'm supposed to be. UW did not recruit me. I stayed because what was important was a sense of home and community,” she reflects. “I then got a scholarship because I just worked so hard. I was the smallest on the team. Always felt like the underdog. When you’re a walk-on, you get treated a little differently, so I just worked, worked and worked.”

Aside from providing purpose and community, her basketball career at the University of Washington connected her with coach Chris Gobrecht who served as a lifelong mentor. After graduating, Russell-Narcisse sought advice from Gobrecht.

“Sometimes you want to do what your coach, who you really respect, wants you to do. She really wanted me to coach, and I was kind of inching in that direction. I just told her, give me a couple of years let me think about it,” she reflected.

Russell-Narcisse never became a coach in the way she imagined, but 30 years later, it’s impossible not to classify her as one.

Russell-Narcisse began her career in retail before networking, with the help of Gobrecht, brought her to the Mariners in 1994. Her first role was selling season tickets “on the phone all day, calling people.” She characterizes the early days in the Kingdome as a small family organization.

“There might have been 50 people," Russell-Narcisse said. "It was really fun, because we didn’t know what we were doing. We were really young but at the time, I had some amazing mentors who showed me everything they know. They just opened their lives and their book of business and helped me grow.”

Her mentors, colleagues and the “passionate fans” kept Russell-Narcisse within the organization. As she grew her career, she held many roles from selling print advertising to serving as a leader in the Mariners corporate partnership team. Over time, she became adept at building meaningful connections with the Mariners' brand and thinking of creative ways to leverage the organization to appeal to a new demographic of fans and diverse audiences.

When asked to distill the main objectives of her role she said, “I would say we're problem solvers. We’re problem solving on a variety of different levels for our partners and brands. That could be marketing objectives, it could be community engagement programs or employee engagement. The Mariners have a lot of equity in the community with being inclusive, wanting to engage communities and wanting to be involved. Partners want to harness some of that some of that equity in the community.”

Despite other opportunities, Russell-Narcisse has stayed with the Mariners for longer than some of the folks she now mentors in the front office have been alive. Why? The same sense of home and community she sought as a little girl.

“You have the opportunity to move on into other things if you want, but this always felt like home. It's always felt that way. And it's a direct reflection of the people I have had the chance to work with. They made me feel like this was this is my home, this is my community, these are people who love me,” Russell-Narcisse said.

It's nearly impossible to find a Mariners staffer, past or present, who doesn’t deeply care for Russell-Narcisse. Not because she’s adept at generating revenue or unrivaled at networking, but because she invests in her colleagues. She remembers the names of your family members or checks in about your sick parents. She makes a point to create meaningful connections with interns. She creates the kind of culture she swears is why she stayed all these years, perhaps unaware of the magnitude of her presence, and how she did the same for so many others.

Gregg Greene, vice president of marketing, has worked with Russell-Narcisse for 26 years.

“We used to be office neighbors. We’d play music for each other to hear from our shared wall. We’d laugh, and laugh,” Greene said. “There are ups and downs in baseball. There are ups and downs in life. Ingrid is one of those people I go to for positivity. You need those people.”

When asked how she makes time to mentor so many, Russell-Narcisse seemed puzzled by the question. Mentoring is her priority and her purpose.

“I do see that as my primary job,” she said. “Before, I’d think my purpose was to think of new ways to generate revenue. And I can do that, too, but my purpose is to leave this organization in a great place when I move on and that I can help people here grow. So many people come into the business wide-eyed wanting to do great things. And I’ll do what I can to help them get there, but some of it is telling in them it’s OK to fail. Sometimes we don’t feel that way as women. But it’s OK to fail, as long as you fail up.”

Yvette Yzaguirre, senior activation specialist, has worked with Russell-Narcisse for the past three years and credits her for a sense of community with the Mariners.

“Since I was 17, my entire life’s dream was to work for the Mariners,” Yzaguirre said. “The longer I worked in the sports industry, I began to understand who the experts in the field were. I finally had the opportunity to meet Ingrid and she was so passionate, kind, understanding and a hard worker. I had decided that not only did I want to work for the Mariners, but I wanted to learn specifically from Ingy.

"She leads with a purpose, is supportive, kind and is always interested in how she can support others. I am extremely grateful for her and her leadership. She empowers me to share my story with others and be true to myself. With her mentorship, I have been able to host various students from underserved and BIPOC communities to join us at T-Mobile Park to learn about the various career opportunities and how to reach your dreams. I couldn’t imagine a better leader for our department and more importantly an even better human.”

Russell-Narcisse checked in with coach Gobrecht a few years ago.

“We were talking about coaching. She said, 'Man, I really had you pegged as a coach.'"

In many ways, Russell-Narcisse did become a coach. Not of a team in the traditional sense, but of a cohort of young men and women, spanning decades and career paths, who would point to her as the source of home and community, the two things she’s spent a lifetime cultivating.

As for her beloved office? Russell-Narcisse remarks, “I tell all of my team I’m just holding the space for you. I’m just sitting here, helping you grow and providing anything you need so that you can sit here someday, too.”