by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
When Tiffany Valla comes back to work, she expects her relatively busy office to become a quasi-storage room for her coworkers. See, Valla’s going to be out for a while. Her first child — daughter Mia — is due Sunday and she has piled up enough vacation and comp time to stay out of work until after the new year.
Valla, a Florida State graduate, wouldn’t mind at all if little Mia was a few days early, especially since her Seminoles play Clemson on national TV Monday night.
“I am trying to give positive vibes to the team right now,” said Valla, who met her husband Chris while both were students at FSU. “But, he’s a Gator fan.”
Valla has been with the Office of Special Events for seven years and is the office’s media support specialist.
“I do our Web site,” she said, adding the job also entails graphics, printing, arranging for photographers and plenty of in-house graphics work.
Valla started as an intern with the office right out of college, worked for a while and promptly left for the other side of the planet. But, she left for an opportunity she couldn’t turn down, she had the blessing of her boss and a job when she returned.
“I spent two months in Australia during the Sydney Olympics (in 2000),” said Valla, who went to work for the State of Florida. “I had applied for the job while I was back in school. Teresa (O’Donnell Price) graciously gave me two months off and offered me a job.”
Valla was among a group of Florida State and Florida graduates in Sydney for the games to help promote the state as a possible site for the 2012 Summer Games.
“We were ambassadors for Florida,” said Valla, who called the trip “awesome, amazing and insane.”
While there, Valla and the others met with members of the international media and talked to them about what Florida had to offer as a possible venue. She lived with a host family, got to see plenty of the Olympics and plenty of the local sights.
“The first week, two Americans were eaten by sharks,” she said. “That kept me out of the water. I went in to about knee deep.”
Valla said while motherhood will be exciting, there’s also a good chance she will find herself missing work at some point in the next four months.
“It will be kind of weird,” she said. “I am used to working Florida-Georgia, the air show and the light parade. It’ll be different. I’ll probably still call in and see if I can do anything from home.”