Everyday, I am so glad I can call myself an editor. There is so much more to the role than fixing commas or trimming a story to fit on a page. I've served in many editing roles — managing editor for statewide lifestyle magazine with 400,000+ readership, features editor for a city weekly, blog editor, even video editor — and each role made me fall in love with delivering information all over again.Being an editor, first and foremost, means being a collaborator. Editing is about knowing what ideas and information other people want to convey and working with them to get there. As important as the words themselves is the total experience of the reader or audience, which means collaborating with designers, photographers, web designers, brand managers, etc. Editing, in my opinion, should not be a lonely role. But creating content is not just about the teammates who help make it happen. I see the editor role as an advocate for the reader or audience. An editor is, essentially, a user experience designer who makes sure the reader has the most informative (or enjoyable, or earth-shattering, or inspiring, or nostalgic—whatever the objective may be) experience possible. I graduated with a masters in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2016. I researched the stories we tell ourselves about incidents of campus sexual assault. From that experience, I learned the importance of audience context and biases. I witnessed the power of shared knowledge and experiences in a community and how that translates into words, labels and reasoning. I am constantly learning about social forces, language and history. I love to read (fantasy and mythology), write fiction (or try to, anyway), listen to podcasts (can't get enough of the McElroy brothers), and make silly things to sell on Etsy (bonus points if it's Tina Fey-related).