When Howard County native Beau Brade made the Ravens, he proudly mentioned that one of his pivotal memories of the team was when he and his River Hill High School teammates won one of the halftime high school showcases at M&T Bank Stadium.

Behind the scenes, Kim Ferguson, senior director of fan development and activation, and the rest of the Ravens’ marketing team were “geeking out” when they heard that.

“Like, he did the cycle, right?” Ferguson said. “He was part of the Rise youth football team. He got to be a part of it and come, and he played on the field in that competition. They won that, and now he’s playing on our team.”

Brade is an unique example — few athletes rise all the way to the NFL, after all — but a valuable one for explaining what Ferguson and her team are trying to do: reach fans at all stages and get them involved in football.

They have programs designed for youth, women and fans in different cities, states and even countries.

Now, Ferguson has her eyes on an even bigger goal than being a part of a kid’s journey to the NFL. She’s been working tirelessly with the Ravens and high schools around Maryland to get girls’ flag football off the ground. And, she hopes, by the time the sport debuts in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, one of their Maryland girls will be living a Beau Brade story of her own.

First love

Ferguson’s earliest memories are filled with the sights, sounds and energy of Washington’s and, later, Baltimore’s NFL football games mixed with the sweat, speed and thrill of running.

Both sports hold an equal space in her heart.

But only one was available to her as an athlete. There were many times as a child when she wondered from the sidelines why she couldn’t put on a helmet and run out there with the boys. Instead, she laced up her running shoes.

Ferguson’s track career took off enough at Our Lady Of Good Counsel High School that she planned to run at James Madison University before an injury forced her to step away. But as much as she loves track, football was always the goal.

Over and over, Ferguson told her family she would find a job in football. Through her busy schedule as a high school athlete, she still “monitored” football, looking for avenues in. When she got to college, the “doors opened up,” and she found an internship in the Carolina Panthers ticket office. She also got to work on the marketing team for her school’s athletics department, which opened her eyes to different possibilities.

As Ferguson prepared to graduate, she began combing through the listings on the sports job board the Ravens used at the time, Teamwork Online.

“I applied for every NFL position,” Ferguson said. “I think every team has gotten an email resume from me.”

After getting an internship in the ticket office for the Ravens, Ferguson jumped on every opportunity. She went from customer service intern to coordinator to manager. She then switched to corporate partnerships, but what she loved about customer service was the interaction with fans. She’s still friends with some fans she helped to this day.

When a position with the fan development and activation team opened up, she applied and reconnected with one of her favorite things about sports: the community.

Workplace love

Every game day, Ferguson walks over 20,000 steps.

From setting up RavensWalk to managing all the guests who are mentioned on the field at breaks, Ferguson darts all over M&T Bank Stadium.

And that’s just on game day. Her team also works on events throughout the week. She drives to high schools where players make appearances. She attends fan events, both around Baltimore and occasionally in different cities where they bring together “displaced fans” (their term for any Ravens fans outside the Baltimore region). She returns to M&T Bank Stadium for events like “A Purple Evening,” which is a night just for the ladies of the fan base. And she travels when necessary, recently visiting Dallas for a Ravens fan event there.

Ferguson embraces being a role model, whether she’s speaking at her alma mater or a Ravens event. Last year, the Ravens held a women’s leadership networking event, and she loved watching those in attendance learn about different opportunities.

“We had girls out here that were like, ‘Wait, you’ve got finance, you’ve got’ — they don’t realize that we are a normal company, and we have normal things that are available,” Ferguson said. “And you don’t have to be a football fan. You can just want to work in sports.”

But out of all of these events, Ferguson said her proudest moment (outside of when the Ravens won the Super Bowl) has been getting girls’ flag football off the ground. The program launched last year with 10 teams in Frederick County, and expanded this season to include additional teams in Baltimore City, Washington County and Montgomery County.

One of the athletes told Ferguson something that stuck with her.

“She goes, ‘The girls in Frederick County are never going to remember not having girls’ flag as a sport opportunity,’” Ferguson said. “And that’s what I want for my daughter. I want Hadley to be able to know that she’ll always have that opportunity. If she wants to play flag football, great, she doesn’t have to, but it’s always gonna be an opportunity if that’s something she loves.”

Greatest love

Ferguson’s greatest joy — her children, 7-year-old Hadley and 5-year-old Holden — has also been her biggest challenge, but that’s often how parenthood goes.

But to Ferguson, motherhood is the next great challenge for women to overcome in sports. In fact, Ferguson said she spoke to a class at James Madison that had previously heard from another speaker that it’s not possible to work in sports and have a family.

“A lot of people say you can’t be a mother and work in football, and that’s not true,” Ferguson said. “We’ve all proven that.”

But it’s certainly not easy. Balancing motherhood in the workplace is an oft-discussed topic, but it becomes more complicated in a job with abnormal hours. The Ravens, she said, have a growing number of mothers within the organization, and they all support each other.

But the situation becomes more complicated when both parents work for the team, like in Ferguson’s case; her husband, Collin, is the director of football video operations.

They balance it with babysitters on game day and take-your-child-to-work days throughout the summer. Ferguson joked that she realized she doesn’t even know what they get up to during training camp after her son pointed at the TV and said he knew the man on the screen and said he met him. The man was John Harbaugh.

As hard as it can be to manage the hours, having children, especially her daughter, has also sparked an even greater passion in Ferguson for her mission.

“When I had my daughter, thinking of it through her eyes, everything we’re doing, it totally changed my perspective,” Ferguson said.

Likewise, becoming a girl dad has made Ferguson’s husband even more aware of the cause.

So far, they’ve raised a girl who isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with the boys. When they told her she couldn’t play gaga ball — a form of dodgeball played in an octagon — with them, she marched right on into the game.

There’s still so much more room for growth when it comes to creating spaces for women in men’s sports, Ferguson said — it’s a case of “crawl, walk, run.” But she’s seen enough growth, thanks to women working for the Ravens and elsewhere, to feel confident her daughter will grow up in a world where the idea of a woman working in or even playing football is not weird.

“When she’s older, she’s not going to know the difference,” she said.