I grew up an aspiring sportswriter who religiously read the local newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, every day and dedicated my education toward becoming a journalist. After two great years out of college of covering ACC basketball on Tobacco Road, I decided I was ready for a new challenge and accepted an AmeriCorps VISTA Communications & Development position with DC SCORES, an award-winning nonprofit after-school program in Washington, D.C. That move changed the trajectory of my career, and I'm thankful for it. Because as much as I love and respect great sports writing, being a newspaper reporter in 2023 would be pretty tough. Instead, I now work for an organization that helps educate people about the value of standards-based journalism (see below).I worked for DC SCORES for nine years, building from the ground up its myriad social media platforms, leading fundraising campaigns, organizing its annual $100K-plus corporate soccer tournament, and much more. In September 2018, I continued my nonprofit communications career by joining the News Literacy Project (NLP) — a national education nonprofit offering nonpartisan, independent programs that teach students and the general public how to know what to believe in the digital age — as Social Media Manager. During my time in DC, I also freelanced for the Associated Press (mostly covering Washington Nationals and Wizards games), co-led the DC chapter of the worldwide free fitness movement November Project for four years, and co-hosted the AU Hoops Podcast dedicated to small-college Division I basketball for six seasons. I left DC in 2021 after 12 years for a move to Seattle, where I continue my social media work for NLP.I consider myself a multi-faceted communicator and director of communications in a world where the way we connect evolves on a daily basis and the average attention span is eight seconds. I craft each post for whatever platform with this in mind: Who might be interested in this, and will they engage with it, too? The work is challenging, but I embrace it - doing all I can to support news literacy skills for all in an intimidating information environment.
Listed skills include Social Media, Blogging, Editing, Nonprofits, and 24 others.