Black Walnut Photography is a one-woman photography business based in St. Joseph, MO that serves St. Joseph, Kansas City and other surrounding towns. As a detail-oriented, professional lifestyle photographer and photojournalist, I bring an elevated level of knowledge, skill and passion to my work, thanks to 14 years of experience in the photography industry as well as excellent technical and creative training from the prestigious Rochester Institute of Technology. I specialize in commercial photography- products, headshots and 360° virtual tours- as well as weddings, events, and family photography. Through becoming an entrepreneur and running my business full-time, I gained additional experience in:- Marketing a business through social media (Facebook and Instagram), digital and print ads, events, SEO, SEM and retargeting tactics, both business to business and business to consumer- Handling all invoicing, accounting, budgeting, pricing and writing contracts- Collaborating with both personal and business/commercial clients on a variety of photography projects- Maintaining a business calendar and scheduling meetings and appointments- Designing, implementing and maintaining a business website, creating all written and visual content- Teaching students one on one in areas of digital photography, professional lighting and retouching, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom- Coaching assistants working with me on photography assignments - Working with a variety of programs on a Mac platform: Adobe Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Excel, Krpano, PTGui, SmugMug, WordPress- Retouching photographs using Photoshop and Lightroom: products, locations, people - Selecting and submitting work for national and local photography contests- Implementing a sitting/standing workstation that prevents eyestrain, repetitive strain injuries and back pain

Research, coordinate and manage all marketing efforts- for the branch as a whole as well as separate internal groups- including print, digital, social media and planning and executing all eventsDesign and create marketing materials- including ads, flyers, postcards and invitations- while maintaining a consistent brand voicePrepare reports, spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations as well as draft written correspondence

TIVOL is a 110+-year-old family-owned luxury jewelry store in the heart of Kansas City. As the Marketing Coordinator & Photographer in the three-person, completely in-house creative team at TIVOL, I wore many hats. I had to be a strong, independent worker who could complete tasks efficiently and on-time, often under pressure. I had to prioritize and know when and how to handle various responsibilities, including: - Assisting with managing $1.1 million annual marketing budget and establishing marketing goals- Managing organization of the marketing department office and various online servers, as well as Excel spreadsheets monitoring and coordinating expenses, budget, media placement and events- Communicating daily with multiple departments at both store locations, also with national jewelry vendors, customers, printers and local and national ad reps- Coordinating all aspects of upscale store events (of which there were 6-10 per year) including staffing, event space, catering, mailing lists, rentals- also worked every event as a host and coordinator- Collaborating with the Director of Marketing on the biannual magazine- photographing product for catalog sections as well as lifestyle shots for editorial sections, selling advertising space, reading and editing all text, writing articles, designing ads and invoicing- Coordinating media schedules and photographing or requesting visuals for social media postings (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Google +), billboards, magazines, newspapers, window clings and web ads- Adding and maintaining content on company website as well as internal company Intranet- photographing new products and requesting images from vendors, updating price or availability changes, verifying descriptions- Proofreading all ads, articles, social media posts and press releases for spelling or grammatical errors- Sorting and handling all incoming mail and other office correspondence, answering and directing phone calls

Kas Photography was the business I ran part-time while simultaneously working full-time jobs. It was founded when I graduated from RIT in 2003, moved with me to Kansas City in 2011, and ceased to exist when I founded Black Walnut Photography in 2015. Kas Photography gave me a creative outlet after finishing college and also gave me my start in photographing weddings, families, portraits, pets, children, events and travel.

While working at Citizens Bank as an Assistant Branch Manager, my responsibilities included: - Collaborating with the Branch Manager and other branch staff to ensure success of the branch and meeting individual and branch quarterly sales goals- Interviewing, training, supervising, coaching and developing branch staff- Maintaining excellent knowledge of bank products and services- Monitoring adherence to operational guidelines and regulatory requirements- Working one-on-one with customers to resolve issues and make needs-based recommendations- Promoting and selling bank products and services at the branch, out in the community and over the phone- Preparing daily and weekly reports and participating in daily regional conference calls- Creating and maintaining all branch employee schedules and monitoring recorded hours and payroll