Writer, researcher, adjunct professor for journalism, creative writing.

As an experienced communications manager and change agent, I have served as a strategist for digital and traditional media campaigns. I enjoy working with constituents and am an energetic and creative problem solver. I have written press releases, designed e-letters, refined blog posts and managed websites. As the staff for a legislative task force on campus sexual assault, I coordinated input from policy experts and helped write and edit the final report -- completed on time and under budget. I have led the N.J. team at policy conferences on student success, and I was a member of the management committee of a statewide initiative to improve Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education in New Jersey.I am experienced at working collaboratively with business and political leaders to build support for initiatives at the state and local levels. I am able to quickly analyze complex policy issues and write about them in ways that engage and motivate the public. I am an excellent, entertaining public speaker and team player. During 18 years as an investigative reporter, I researched complicated state issues including mistreatment of psychiatric patients and prisoners, the high cost of college and the balance of political power in the New Jersey State House. I was the chief political reporter for Gannett New Jersey newspapers.

As the Manager of Policy, Planning and Constituent Relations, I wrote and supervised production of a blog that circulated to more than 600,000 students, faculty and staff at the 65 institutions of higher education. I led New Jersey’s team at the Education Trust's higher education policy conferences in Baltimore, and took part in policy conferences in Washington, D.C. and the CAEL conference in San Diego. I worked closely with the Secretary of Higher Education on Council on Innovation initiatives that fostered partnerships between academia and industry. I researched and wrote speeches, testimony, briefing papers and confidential reports for the Secretary and the Governor’s Office. As director of communications and constituent relations, I answered questions from the public and press and also served as public records custodian.

As an administrator at New Jersey's higher education agency, with a 20-year background as a journalist and writer, I enjoyed working with college students on their writing and interviewing skills.

Board members support the efforts to maintain professional-quality theater at 4th and Jasper streets in Camden. Under the leadership of playwright Joe Paprzycki, Board President Bob Bingaman, Sacred Heart Msgr. Michael Doyle -- and many other hard-working people and volunteers -- we have built a beautiful, 96-seat theater in an area of the city that has been struggling to rebuild.

When I first started at the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, I wrote and edited grant proposals, answered questions from the media and organized a Showcase of Exemplary Practices for New Jersey schools of education.

I answered media calls, wrote speeches and planned events as the Director of Communications for the NJ Department of Education.