I serve as a project manager, writer, and editor for donor-and constituent-focused communications for partners—Emory Law School, Candler School of Theology, Goizueta Business School, the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, and more—including major and principal gift proposals, stewardship reporting, social media content, emails, web content, and philanthropic or alumni-centric collateral. I manage most projects from start to finish, including the planning of communication strategy, project timeline creation, content aggregation, writing, editorial review, managing design, content and design revisions, and arranging stakeholder approvals.In this role, I’ve helped raise more than $50 million for Emory, including a $30 million grant to the Goizueta Business School, the largest philanthropic gift in the school’s history. I also volunteered as a member of my division’s DEI-focused Divisional Committee on Community and Diversity from January 2019 to December 2021. I served as Vice Chair in 2020 and Chair in 2021, leading the committee through the disruption and paradigm-shifting events of the pandemic and the death of George Floyd, which caused us to begin shifting the committee’s structure and direction to start holding the division more accountable on matters related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a Senior Editor, I partnered with colleagues at Emory Law, Laney Graduate School, Goizueta Business School, Candler School of Theology, the Emory Center for Ethics, and the Office of Corporate Relations to produce strategic development communications for their fundraising relationships, including donor solicitations, event collateral, and constituent engagement.

After four months in the Transcription and Production Lead role, I was promoted to Technical Writer/Editor. Now fully a member of the Production Department, my writing duties included educational articles, web content, blog articles on a variety of home service-related topics, and technical profiles of client companies for both print and the web. I also reviewed, proofread, and edited the editorial output of the other editors, interns, and part-time employees on the team. The bulk of our work involved the production of home service guides for nine different metro areas. My role in getting these books out of the door and into mailboxes involved working with hundreds of clients and their account executives to ensure that the content we published was accurate, consistent with our internal style guide, and client approved. I also contributed by creating documents and books in Adobe InDesign, performing mass web updates in our content management system (Salesforce), and verifying and documenting the accuracy of information prior to publication.

A Technical Writer/Editor position opened at Best Pick Reports six months after I left my position at Kaplan, and it seemed like a logical next step for me, so I applied. What I didn’t know was that another internal candidate who had been groomed for the role, a part-time employee working in the Production Department, had also applied for the position. Based on the strength of my application and the reputation I built at the company, they wanted to bring me on as well, but didn’t have the budget to hire two Technical Writer/Editors. As a compromise, they created a temporary position for me that straddled both the Transcription and Research Department and Production Department. This new role would allow me to begin working directly with and integrating into the Production Department until the budget could be approved for a second Technical Writer/Editor position. As Transcription and Production Lead, I continued performing all of the duties of Lead Transcriptionist. In addition, I supported the Production Department by writing blog articles, editing the work of the other writers, and fact-checking and preparing company profiles for publication in our home service guides.

While still teaching for Kaplan, my waning interest in a legal career led me to this part-time transcriptionist position at Best Pick Reports. In this role, I transcribed hundreds of phone calls daily—primarily job leads from homeowners who used the company’s home service guides to hire home service providers. BPR’s primary source of revenue was the fee the service providers paid for job leads, so an accurate and complete record of those leads was vital. I also transcribed research calls our interviewers conducted to assess whether or not potential client companies qualified as “Best Picks” based on the level of customer service and quality of work provided to past customers.After about a year and a half, I became Lead Transcriptionist by distinguishing myself through my accuracy, attention to detail, productivity, affability, and reliability. This role came with some supervisory duties, including training new hires and overseeing the work of other transcriptionists. I also became more involved with data compilation and analysis, turning the information collected by the transcriptionists into useful data for the rest of the company.

While considering a career in law, I became a Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) instructor, seeing this as an opportunity to keep my test skills and knowledge sharp. In this role, I taught LSAT prep courses—class sizes ranged from 5 to 20+ students—and managed and protected confidential customer information and Kaplan's intellectual property. I also worked one-on-one with students, tutoring and coaching them individually.I found that I often needed to expand my knowledge of the content beyond the materials and methodology Kaplan provided to guide instruction, developing my own alternative ways of explaining the complex and abstract concepts. Courses were not sorted by ability level, so I provided different perspectives to approach the material from to accommodate differences in students’ skills and learning styles. Since success on the LSAT depends more on skills and pattern recognition than facts, I always encouraged my students to practice regularly outside of classes or sessions, and I consistently saw that the students who followed this advice showed the greatest improvement by the end of our time together. The success of Kaplan’s Test Prep business—and by extension, my performance as an instructor— relied on the success and satisfaction of its students. I made myself accessible to students and provided high-quality customer service since teaching a full cohort (20+ students) meant that I was responsible for shepherding tens of thousands of dollars in revenue for the company.

As an enumerator, I conducted interviews with dozens of households across the northern Atlanta metro area that had not already responded to the 2010 Census as part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s efforts to ensure a complete and accurate count. Since residents might not respond to the census for a variety of reasons, including mistrust of government, fear of deportation, or even procrastination, I had to be prepared to deal with people from all walks of life. By being approachable and patient, clearly identifying myself, explaining why I wanted to speak with them, and what would be done with the information they shared with me, I was able to successfully complete the vast majority of interviews assigned to me. I planned my schedule and route, keeping detailed records of hours worked, miles driven, data collected, and any job-related expenses incurred while performing my duties.

Provided customer service to patrons by procuring volumes from the library's collection and providing relevant reference information. Performed evening security patrols to ensure the library remained a safe and secure environment for patrons. Helped keep the collection organized through circulating books into and out of the library, reshelving, and processing incoming and outgoing books from other institutions.