Debbie Elicksen

Debbie Elicksen

Stage 32 Lounge Moderator. Writer. Storyteller. Publicist. Author of 19 books. Web Host. Ex NHL reporter, football, & pro baseball administrator.
Marketing/pr, Content Creator, Unit Publicist, Author and Host/presenter

Calgary, Canada

Member Since:
October 2012
Last online:
1 day ago
Invites sent:
9

About Debbie

I am a community manager for Stage 32.

With a broadcasting certificate, I gumshoed my way into becoming a paid professional writer and publisher.

Told women couldn’t work in the NHL, I became an accredited NHL reporter, writing for NBC Sports, Associated Press, Hockey Canada, and others. I was also PR director for a Triple A farm team of the California Angels.

I served 18 years as an administrator in Canadian junior football, was the first female president of a football conference in Canada, and was inducted into the 2018 Alberta Sports Hall of Fame as part of back-to-back championship teams.

While I have been interviewed many times for television, radio, print, and web, I have personally interviewed over 3,000 professional athletes during my career as a sports reporter and written thousands of articles for local and international publications.

From 2012 to 2013, I was a co-host of an interview-format web show SocialChats with three other women from Florida. We broadcast weekly and interviewed guests like Charles Mattock (The Poor Chef), Arcana Comics, and Web City Girls. It was early days for such web shows and streaming platforms, so we were among a select few that pioneered that era.

From 2013 to 2016, I co-created, co-produced, and co-hosted the interview-format web show Virtual Newsmakers. Our platform was to bridge traditional and digital technology. We interviewed many high-profile guests and digital thought-leaders that included Chris Brogan, R2D2 creator Tony Dyson, US bobsleigh gold medalist Steve Mesler, actor/screenwriter/publisher Dr. Braxton Cosby, and Stage 32 founder and CEO Richard Botto. Collectively, in those three years our guests had exposed us to their following of well over two million in those three years.

In August 2021, I created, produce, and host the interview-format web show Locker Room for Growth, which features compelling stories and inspiring guests. Some of those guests include NFL alumni Marques Ogden, LA County Commissioner and public relations specialist Tonya McKenzie, Arcana Cinematic Universe CEO Sean Patrick O’Reilly, Hollywood stuntman Kevin Cassidy, Hip Hop artist DC Glenn, filmmaker Tahiera Monique Brown, musician and sound engineer Navid Lancaster, NHL alumni superstar Ryan Walter, and Irish Tweeting Goddess Samantha Kelly.

I co-created a movie blog site Our Movie Talk with former casting director, film funding Jennifer Miller-Bender (Jen Miller).

I've worked with an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker in helping her promote her 2016 film Thomas Chapin: Night Bird Song.

I've worked with writer/director Brad Rego in helping him promote his 2022 horror film Cryptid.

My experience also includes video and audio editing, search engine optimization, agency experience, reporting and writing stories for news organizations, working exclusively remotely on projects, writing/publishing training, direct media experience in television/print/radio/Internet media.

@bookpublish101 on Twitter
debbieelicksen on Instagram
debelicksen on Facebook
debbielelicksen and debbieelicksen on TikTok
debbieelicksen on YouTube
debbieelicksen on LinkedIn

Unique traits: Creating a digital profile out of nothing. First woman to headman a football conference in Canada. Pioneer in Canadian football and the National Hockey League. Livestreaming web shows since 2012.

Certifications

Loglines

  • Black Ice (Adaptation)

    Black Ice (Adaptation) Sports Drama A talented hockey player is at the mercy of an abusive hockey coach and must choose between his potential professional career or leave the sport.

  • Breaking the Stalwart Ceiling

    Breaking the Stalwart Ceiling Sports Drama A man tries to break the gender barrier in a world completely dominated by women.

  • Forgotten Morphemes

    Forgotten Morphemes Comedy Animation Screenwriter has all his unfinished and unused screenplays and ideas in the closet that come to life. 

Credits

  • Locker Room for Growth

    Locker Room for Growth (2021)
    Internet by Debbie Elicksen Web Host Locker Room for Growth is about planting seeds of inspiration. Interviews are with compelling and interesting people whose stories include: rags to riches, personal demons and challenges that were overcome; entertainment, music and sports celebrities; unique careers and aspects of humans.

  • Positive Sports: Professional Athletes and Mentoring Youth

    Positive Sports: Professional Athletes and Mentoring Youth
    Print Author Positive Sports was highlighted as a “must read” at the Admissions Conference in Toronto in the Fall of 2003. The point of this book is to show that while we may only hear about the bad and criminal behavior of many of today’s players, the majority are like the people featured in this book. Yes, there are some who have no idea of how good they have it, who do not appreciate the gift they have received in the ability to play the game they love. You have that in every job, every industry, every society. But the majority of the players, because drama doesn’t follow their lives, their philanthropic efforts are not usually seen. It’s a much sexier headline to talk about a player dragging his unconscious wife into an elevator than to acknowledge his teammate might have started a foundation that provides food and clothing to inner city communities.

  • Loyalty, Intensity, and Passion: An Inside Look at the National Lacrosse League

    Loyalty, Intensity, and Passion: An Inside Look at the National Lacrosse League
    Print Author "Despite the burgeoning success of professional indoor lacrosse, few reporters, with one or two notable exceptions, understand the game well enough to write about it with excellence or insight. Deb Elicksen is among those few scribes who through their writing demand respect from players, management and fans alike. She knows boxla because she passionately follows the National Lacrosse League (mostly through the ups and downs of the Calgary Roughnecks); has the moxie to go into the locker room after games to talk to players, even when they’ve lost a home playoff game, and the common sense and social wherewithal to meet and mix with the athletes away from the arena. In short, Elicksen knows the NLL inside and out. Not surprisingly therefore, “Loyalty, Intensity and Passion” is a must read for those who love the fastest game in the world played on two feet.” Bob Poole, Calgary Roughnecks, 2005 NLL Public Relations Executive of the Year Teams, ownerships, coaches, and players have moved around, but one thing will never change: the title of this book as it relates to this sport. If there was any phrase that could describe a league, this is it. The passion and loyalty remains, as do the life-long friendships I made during the course of my time in lax. Kaleb Toth, Tracey Kelusky, Jim Moss, Casey Powell, Anthony Cosmo, Lewis Ratcliff, Taylor Wray, John Tavares, John Grant Sr., Kurt Silcott, Devan Wray, Chris Hall, and more were interviewed for this book.

  • Inside the NHL Dream: Take a Tour from Inside the Locker Room

    Inside the NHL Dream: Take a Tour from Inside the Locker Room
    Print Author While most of the players and other personnel in this book may have retired or moved into other positions, the book still gives you a realistic peek at what life looks like behind the scenes of the National Hockey League. It goes deep into areas other books have never gone. What happens in the general manager's office right before he makes a trade? Who takes care of a player's household after he reports to his new team? What does an agent do? For this book, Jarome Iginla, Paul Kariya, Kelly Hrudey, Dwayne Roloson, Grant Fuhr, Mike Modano, Igor Kravchuk, Anson Carter, Dominik Hasek, Darius Kasparitis, Peter Maher, Mike Modano, Rob Niedermayer, James Patrick, Michael Peca, Dwayne Roloson, Teemu Selanne, and many more were personally interviewed.

  • Future Prospects: An Inside Look at Major Junior Hockey

    Future Prospects: An Inside Look at Major Junior Hockey
    Print Author This book gives you a birds-eye view as to what it was like to work and play in the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Ron Robison, who was Commissioner of the Western Hockey League, wrote the Foreword. For this book, personal interviews were conducted with Fred Brathwaite, Patrice Brisebois, Valeri Bure, Tim Connolly, Nigel Dawes, Shean Donovan, Andrew Ference, Jiri Fisher, Ryan Getzlaf, Jarome Iginla, Jacques Lemaire, Doug MacLean, Mike Modano, Bob Nicholson, Mike Ricci, Richard Zednik, Radoslav Suchy, and more.

  • Anonymous: The Wartime Role of Military Mascots

    Anonymous: The Wartime Role of Military Mascots
    Print Author Researching military mascots has not been easy. When I first started on this book (well before the Internet was a sparkle in Bill Gates’ eye), except for a few blurbs in rare publications, the concept was virtually unrecorded. I came across one American book but the stories included only United States and British mascots. I had exhausted all my resources after a half page of notes. The last place I looked was at the servicemen themselves. Given their reluctance to describe their conditions, I wasn’t sure how well they would respond. As it turned out it was my best source of research. I received letters from all over the world. Some sent photographs, some sent leads to other sources. Stories varied in detail, ranging from half page to five pages to personally published books. Some stories were vague and some included graphic details. In most of the stories, the elements of war in which these servicemen were reluctant to share had resurfaced. Those elements were a key to describing how mascots adapted to certain situations.

  • Take Back the Internet: Empower yourself against cyberbullies and Internet trolls

    Take Back the Internet: Empower yourself against cyberbullies and Internet trolls
    Print Author Cyberbullying Isn't Just A Schoolyard Problem. Businesses and adults are also targets of cyberbullying and cyberlibel. When there is a knowing and willful malicious act to discredit another person or business' reputation through a website or web post -- that is an act of cyberbullying. It is also defamation of character and an act of cyberlibel. Cyberbullying and cyberlibel is a violation of both Canadian and American criminal codes. Cybercrimes are new to our police forces -- some don't even know what it is yet. But while few departments have the manpower and knowledge in pursuing such a case, it is important to document everything and even file a police report to use the case number, in case you need to file a libel suit down the road. This book is a collection of posts to help you reclaim your Internet power and to kick the trolls to the curb where they belong.

  • My Locker Room Life

    My Locker Room Life
    Print Author My Locker Room Life is a collection of personal sports stories from behind the scenes. The reader will have a guest seat on the bus, in the press box, on the field, in the training room, and on the player's bench. These stories include the National Hockey League, National Lacrosse League, Canadian Football League, Canadian Junior Football League, and more. You'll hear from people like Steve Yzerman, Alondra Johnson, Kris Draper, Daniel Briere, Ken-Yon Rambo, Cassie Campbell, Kelly Kisio, Dave Dickenson, Shirley Fischler, and Sergei Fedorov. These personal anecdotes provide an inside look at life in a locker room. You'll also hear how one woman fought for access to the press box, paving the way for future generations of female reporters.

Awards

  • Alberta Sports Hall of Fame
    (2018)

Education

  • TESOL
    (2018-2019)

  • CHIT Broadcasting School

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