Jamie Chandlee
By Forrest Preece
Some people set their life goals high, focus, and then conquer every step up, even when there’s a stumbling block in the way. Case in point, Jamie Chandlee. “I want to go to New York City and carry a briefcase.” Those were her prophetic words when she had her eyes fixed on success back at West Brook High School in Beaumont. On a chilly afternoon a few weeks ago, I had a spirited conversation with Jamie, one of our town’s movers and shakers, about the trajectory of her career and her passion for being a positive force in the Austin non-profit scene—and in the business world.
In high school, she was a cheerleader and class president, and she participated in several clubs. Upon graduating, she had an impressive variety of experiences on her resume. At UT Austin, she was a cheerleader and a Pi Phi. High achievement followed her after graduation in 2005 when she nabbed a highly prized internship with Time, Inc. and went to yes, New York City. While there, she worked on a new teen edition of People Magazine and then was a part of the rollout of a campus-oriented version of Sports Illustrated.
With that heavyweight magazine experience under her belt, she came home to Texas in 2006 and took a sales position in Dallas with D Magazine. Three years later, she hit a hurdle in her uphill climb when she was diagnosed with Stage IV Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She spent the next six months in treatment at MD Anderson in Houston. After ringing the bell at the hospital to celebrate her last round of chemotherapy, she was advised by her doctors to not make any lifestyle changes for a year. With that admonition under her belt, within two weeks, she ended a long-term relationship, quit her job, and moved to Austin to take a position with Facebook.
At that point, Facebook had a tiny office here and everyone had a lot of tasks on their plate. “Recruiting, training, ad sales, everything.” That was 2010, and now there are around 2500 Facebook employees in town. What’s more, that is where she met her husband Blake. Now they have two children, Emerson and Max, 11 and 9.
These days, Jamie is running an innovative online business, and I’ll get to that. But on another level Jamie has been a huge plus for Austin, thanks to her work with several major nonprofits. One organization that she loves to talk about is the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy. She notes that this gorgeous green linkage between the lake and the University of Texas is transforming downtown into a haven of beauty and walkability. The 35-acre greenspace along Waller Creek on the east side of downtown, boasts 1.5 miles of scenic trails, thousands of native plants, imaginative playscapes, Symphony Square, Waterloo Park, and the 5,000-capacity Moody Amphitheater.
After being urged to join the Conservancy’s board by visionary civic leader Tom Meredith, she has made a lot of good friends. “Some of the most impressive people in town are my fellow board members,” Jamie says. A few years ago, along with Sabrina Brown, Jamie chaired their Glow in the Park gala, which was a huge success in terms of fundraising and excitement. The Conservancy has two fundraisers each year – Glow in the Park in the fall, where people come in “tennis shoe glam,” (after all, it is a park!) for dinner in Waterloo Park followed by an ACL Fest-caliber performance. “I love seeing all the clever and fashionable outfits people put together for this event,” Jamie says.
The organization’s other fundraiser is Waterloo Picnic, which happens in the spring (April 5th this year) and appeals to a more casual crowd. Austin’s best restaurants donate picnic baskets, which up to 2,000 supporters purchase and enjoy on colorful blankets together in the park. Jamie says that Waterloo Park is only the beginning of the Conservancy’s plans for downtown Austin. Phase II, the Confluence, is underway and set to be completed in the first half of 2026. Spanning 4th Street down to the lake, it is a series of trails and bridges that will make it possible to walk, bike and jog the entire way without ever crossing a sidewalk. When the Confluence is complete, construction on Palm Park, a four-acre playground fantasy, will commence. For those interested in a sneak peek of the Confluence before it opens next year, the Hartman Bridge just opened along the Butler trail near the Austin Rowing Club.
She’s one busy woman – sometimes too busy to suit herself, and Jamie is throttling down her board involvement. She just rolled off of the board of the School of Human Ecology in The College of Natural Sciences at UT, and the Seton Development Board. Her husband also enjoys civic involvement, serving on the Dell Children’s Board.
Now, about the online companies that she founded. In 2016, Jamie and two partners bought the Rank and Style website from three women in New York. This informative website aggregates links and descriptions of top brands in the realm of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle for both men and women. (Author’s note: This semi-fashionable old man enjoyed looking through the suggestions for pants and shirts I found on the site.) They brought the management of the site to Austin and quickly scaled the business to over 1 million users in just a few years. They have changed with the times as Google altered algorithms and they scaled staff accordingly. One move they made was to promote email acquisition of users who are loyal to what they are offering on the site, giving them more control and to insure profitability.
Her new business is a clean skincare line named ERLY. Teaming up with local dermatologist Dr. Hallie McDonald, they are seeking to help make sense of the flood of brands and sources of advice about skin care and enhancement in the metaverse. Dr. McDonald was seeing more and more women coming to her office using skin care products that were inappropriate for the outcomes being sought. They decided to fill the white space in this market with professional advice and a line of products that work for all skin types. The “ERLY” site launched to the public in January and is already generating significant interest. In fact, they did a soft launch in December, mainly to the Austin community and sold over $75,000 in product in just four weeks.
So when Jamie relaxes, what does she like to do? One of their favorite family excursions is to jump in their boat and motor over to Ski Shores for dinner. They love going to UT sports. Then there’s Reed Park, where her kids like to have fun – in fact she worked with the city on installing nice playscapes there. Also, her children are learning to play tennis at Westwood and many different sports at WAYA. Two of her other lunch spots are Elizabeth Street Café and Tiny Boxwoods. From Maudie’s to Jeffrey’s, their lineup of restaurants covers a lot of ground.
“I couldn’t be happier with my life in Austin and each day is an enjoyable adventure,” Jamie says.
A comment about Jamie:
“Jamie Merendino Chandlee is the kind of woman who places her family, friends, and career as her top priority, makes having it all look effortless—like she wakes up with perfect hair, closes deals by noon, and chairs philanthropic events that appear in glossy magazines—all while knowing the secret to work-life balance is simply ‘owning the room and caring about others’ wherever she goes. She continues to lead by example."
--Lance Avery Morgan, Creative Director, CuratedTexan.com
