Zorita Dorsey Has Run Out of Dreams to Chase

Zorita Dorsey, CLA ’02, was 27 when she experienced what she called a quarter-life crisis. She had found stability in her career in data analytics, which had allowed her to buy a house in Germantown, but she was unhappy. “I hated every moment of it,” Zorita remembered. “I wondered if maybe I should start all over again in a completely different career. Just sell my house, give up my car and start at zero so that in 10 years I could be in a better place.”

That would not prove to be necessary. Five years postgraduation, Zorita returned to Temple for the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management’s Event Leadership Executive certificate program. She completed 100 volunteer hours across a variety of events, giving her valuable hands-on experience in many different roles and the confidence to finally quit her job in data analytics. A connection she made while volunteering even led to her first event job as stage manager at Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s inauguration.

Zorita would string together gig after gig in those first months, turning every job into an interview for the next. “Every time I work on a project,” she explained, “I would meet people who would consider me competent and someone they didn’t mind being around. Those two things together meant they would hire me in various roles.”

Within the first six months of her new career, she worked for a woman who had experience working with the production team behind the Super Bowl. With that being one of her dream jobs, she made a point of asking the woman how one ended up working for the Super Bowl. “She said, ‘Call me in October. We’ll see what we can do.’” Little did Zorita know that there would be many more Super Bowls in her future.

Changing careers was not the first time in Zorita’s life that things did not go as planned. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Zorita graduated from Central High School determined to leave the city. She attended Morgan State University, an HBCU in Baltimore, on a full scholarship, but transferred to Temple after a year and a half.

By day, Zorita was a self-described “computer geek,” spending much of her time in the computer lab, where she and her peers played Duke Nukem and tabletop RPGs. Many of those friends are still in her circles today. On weekends, however, she was just as likely to go out dancing.

“It was a running joke that I was the only one that could be both that really quirky specific nerd type but also go out on Friday night to a restaurant or club,” Zorita said. “I’m the most extroverted introvert you know. My hobbies are reading and puzzles. Very solitary. But I have no problem being in front of a crowd or telling people what to do.”

Our video following Zorita around during Wawa Welcome America 2026.

Luckily for Zorita, telling people what to do would ultimately become her job.

During the decade after transitioning into event production, Zorita worked in countless roles for several big-name clients. She has worked as an entertainment manager for Disney World, as a delegation representative for NATO and as a script coordinator for Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant. She worked as a transportation manager for the Super Bowl not once, but six years in a row.

At a certain point, Zorita said that people stopped tapping her to work on projects and started calling her to run them. She believes that having worked in many of those roles that she now supervises is one of her greatest strengths.

During the decade after transitioning into event production, Zorita worked in countless roles for several big-name clients. She has worked as an entertainment manager for Disney World, as a delegation representative for NATO and as a script coordinator for Miss America’s Outstanding Teen Pageant. She worked as a transportation manager for the Super Bowl not once, but six years in a row. At a certain point, Zorita said that people stopped tapping her to work on projects and started calling her to run them. She believes that having worked in many of those roles that she now supervises is one of her greatest strengths.

Zorita and the rest of the backstage team at the 2024 VMAs.

Zorita and the rest of the backstage team at the 2024 VMAs.

“The whole audio team, the whole video screen team, all the people that built the stage, how did they even get to that city? There’s a production coordinator that’s figuring out airports and hotels and vans. And then what did they eat? There’s somebody else putting together catering orders. These roles exist in the back of the house,” Zorita explained. “But no one ever sees it. And for me, my experience has been learning all those positions. I can speak to them all.”

This summer will be Zorita’s fourth as festival director for Welcome America in Philadelphia. She is also the executive producer for the America250PA Commonwealth Concert Series, a series of five free concerts across Pennsylvania to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday. Zorita is busy enough that she wonders what her next career goals even should be.

“Even now my friends are like, ‘Oh, my God, what are your dreams?’ I’m almost scared to have them because my first dream was to be working the Super Bowl. I achieved that goal within a year of this new industry. Then my next dream was something bigger like the Olympics. And then I did that within two years. Well, what else do I want? I wanted to work with the Obamas. And then I was on the Michelle Obama book tour as one of her team of six that put it into production. I’m almost scared to ask for anything else!”

Zorita can think of one goal of hers: to teach more. She is currently an adjunct professor of entertainment and arts management at Drexel, and she will teach her first class at Temple this fall. “It's very important to me,” Zorita said, “to give young people the opportunity to succeed in this career by giving them real information and not just from a textbook. Not just the sanitized version.”

Zorita has become a mentor in the industry to many of her former students. She prides herself on the relationships that she develops with her mentees, connecting them with opportunities on and off her team.

“I’m always trying to give my students actual opportunities,” Zorita said, “not just talking about it, but being about it.”

Sometimes the advice that she gives to her students is also advice of which she must remind herself. For example: “You do the best you can with the information that you have,” Zorita said. “You have to be okay with that because nothing else is going to bring you any sense of closure or joy.”

She is looking forward to developing those kinds of relationships with students at Temple as well. “Temple shaped me into who I am,” Zorita said. “I have always wanted to give back to the university that gave so much to me.”

That’s one more dream she’ll get to cross off her list.

Originally published June 25, 2026.