Support for communications teams in the Southwest and Rocky Mountains (SWaRM) service areas at the American Red Cross. This team of 20+ staff communicators (and many more volunteers) lead in storytelling across the most vibrant, active service geography in the country.

Extensive writing on most every beat:​ profiles, business, entertainment, social trends, and the occasional runaway monkey. Fiction and Q&As with interesting oddballs, too. Please reach out if you're looking for quality writing and editing projects (note: I have a day-job). Also available for one-off marketing campaigns (i.e. surveys, white papers, research, ghost written blogs). Published in: Great Lakes Review, Utne Reader, Hinterland, Wisconsin Law Journal, The Daily Reporter/Wisconsin Builder, Buffalo Spree, Forth, Milwaukee Record, Mass Transit Magazine, Wanderlust Journal, Wisconsin People & Ideas and nonfiction stories in two books from BELT Publishing, "Right Here, Right Now: A Buffalo Anthology" (November 2017) and "Red State Blues" (June 2018). Also served as editor/organizer of a nonfiction anthology on the marvelous, conflicted city of Milwaukee for BELT Publishing (titled, creatively enough, "The Milwaukee Anthology," released April 2019).Other writing/marketing clients include: Gateway Technical College, Waukesha County Technical College, Masabi and promo for "Among Wolves," a stellar, deep documentary about bikers in Bosnia, tending to wild horses and finding their way in life after wartime.

Every day, I share the impact and stories of the American Red Cross, as we work to prevent and alleviate human suffering. This includes: * communication almost daily with Wisconsin & U.P. of Michigan media; * crafting stories for awareness and engagement with the public;* development and production of all social & digital media;* strategy with internal updates & messaging;* coordination as a member of our regional leadership team; * participation as a member of our national communications spokesperson team;* promotion of our programs for safety, veterans/service members, preparedness, blood collection and disaster response/recovery;* direct involvement at disaster scenes, from small-town home fires to national hurricane responses;* management of one communications colleague in our service area;* and training and coordination with our various teams, including my 30+ remarkable and compassionate public affairs volunteers in Wisconsin.Please reach out if you're interested in sharing your Red Cross story, or if you'd like to join our volunteer roster of stellar storytellers, public affairs pros and social/digital mavens.

In the marketing and communications role, I supported our team by clearly presenting our mission to volunteers, students, educators, donors and the public. Primarily, our mission was best told through the stories of teens who use financial skills and mentoring to live their dreams. Along with storytelling, my work at SecureFutures (formerly Make A Difference - Wisconsin) included: establishing media and public relations connections; writing articles, blogs and announcements; crafting internal documents for use with our various audiences; promoting our annual Investment Conference fundraising event; leading the overhaul of our Wordpress sites and maintaining a stream of updates and content; posting and sharing across relevant social channels; directing and arranging videos that enable our students and supporters to share how our story is part of their own; and team strategy on expansion of our presence and mission. In August 2017, my rebranding task force revealed our new name, SecureFutures, the culmination of 15 months of research, creativity and revisions, all aimed at a stronger identity and greater reach to make sure every teen feels confident and capable when it comes to managing money.

Writing, media relations and social media engagement as part of the marketing team for an encryption and compression software company. In-house writing and editing, plus external bylines. PR pitches and media wrangling. Collaboration on marketing campaigns. Analyst relations, briefings and trend monitoring. Video, website and social media content, too.

Editor, primary content creator and all-around towheaded weirdo at Information Management (formerly DM Review). Original breaking news and trend reporting, tech industry analysis via a regular blog, online radio co-host of data management/BI/business data broadcast DM Radio, informative Web seminar programming, conference attendance and coverage, white paper resources, and so ... much ... social media interaction. Quite the learning curve, this analytics and data management stuff, but then you realize it's behind much of what's running the world.

They used to print out the Internet every day. It was called newspapers. You'll still see them around. Packed with useful stuff like town hall meeting minutes, high school basketball scores, traffic incidents and horoscopes. I wrote and edited one of those versions of the "original Internet" in suburban Milwaukee. The owner thought the Internet was a fad, which is one of the reasons me and many other people no longer work there. For all of its failings, it was highly stressful and vastly interesting. You learn a lot about humanity, tax rates, conflict, happiness and sadness.

Beat reporting and entertainment writing in my hometown. Have you been to western New York? If not, you really should take a look around. It's great there, for many of the same reasons people dis it. Their loss. Reporting in your hometown makes you a celebrity of sorts, at least to your beloved grandmothers and friends at the bar. I learned about the real nature of deadlines and AP Style. I learned that aged town clerks don't really keep in touch with FOIA law. I learned there is nothing you can say to a mother who has lost a son to a wartime accident -- you just listen, if she wants you to listen.