About Me

After graduating from Texas A&M University with a bachelor of science degree in Journalism with a minor in Marketing, I began my professional life at a monthly lifestyle magazine. Starting out as an assistant, I rose through the ranks to ultimately serve as editor of the magazine and manager of the publishing department. I wrote more than 30 features, eventually showing a preference for investigative pieces and articles that dealt with issues challenging families. That interest led me to Oregon and a job as editor of a national newspaper for foster teens to teach independent living skills. A few weeks after I started, I was asked to attend a national conference for those working with independent living programs. There, we were told that Congress was cutting all funding for these critical youth programs. I suggested that we make a short video to explain why these programs are important, and I volunteered to take the lead on the project. Within two weeks, I'd taken a cameraman with me to conduct interviews with former foster teens in Los Angeles, borrowed some existing film from some others, then wrote and cut together my first short film. Two weeks later, I had the video in the hands of every member of Congress in Washington, D.C., and I was credited for saving the funding for independent living programs in the United States.

And so began my career in multi-media communication for a higher purpose.

Following the success of my first "independent film," I moved to Los Angeles in 1995. After a short stint as a script supervisor in training on "Baywatch," I took a position as the communications manager for the Artists Rights Foundation, a nonprofit founded by George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg. Our mission was to educate people (and lawmakers) about the importance of protecting our nation's film legacy from alterations that change the composition of the image and, potentially, the story itself. These are changes that the original filmmakers did not intend when they made their movie, things like colorization and panning, and scanning. While at ARF, I used my experience in publishing to create a quarterly newsletter and, seizing on what were then the new opportunities of the Internet, taught myself HTML and launched the foundation's first website. Likewise, in my next position at a national think tank on school violence prevention, I started a quarterly newsletter, launched a new website, and created an educational booklet series. I also created a searchable national database that cataloged details of school violence incidents around the globe so that best practices and common elements could be easily identified. I'd accepted this position because I'd be allowed to telecommute for the position, and I successfully did so for more than three years.

When changing winds on the political front signaled the probable end of the think-tank, I decided to work as an independent contractor. I'd become a proud step-parent of two and wanted to continue to work from home. As with my previous positions, my work has focused on written and visual communication. Over the past many years, I've been fortunate to have a wide assortment of clients in various industries providing everything from publication and UI design to writing crisis training scenarios, grants, and global training modules for a Fortune 100 company. Always one to embrace new technologies, in 2019, I returned to the classroom and updated my education with a micro-masters in digital marketing with an emphasis on social media.

Now that the children are in college, I'm looking to continue my work in communication as part of a larger team. Life as an independent contractor is rewarding in many ways, but it's a lot like being in a rowboat headed to many different ports. I'm ready to use my skills as part of a team where everyone is rowing together toward a common goal.