ABOUT ME
I'm from Arizona but have lived in Salt Lake City for the past five years. I've held a number of professional roles in higher education--accounting, IT support, advising, and instruction--and through it all I've been fortunate enough to live out my two biggest passions: writing and teaching. If after you've reviewed my portfolio of work are interested in hiring me, you can contact me here. Thank you sincerely for taking the time to read a little bit about me and my work.
I've always had a fascination with words and language, but I never could figure out how to make that "work." I explored nearly all the Humanities majors that exist while I was in college--English, writing, art history, history, linguistics--but none of them were quite the right fit. Fast forward to a year after graduation, when I started exploring the idea of graduate school, I stumbled across a degree in Professional Writing. This program, with its audience-minded, goal-based writing, combined my love of communication with my desire to get. things. done! Once I completed my graduate degree, I put my professional writing skills to use in my job as an advisor and also started a volunteer stint as an editor and writer with a fan site for another one of my loves: the Irish rock band, U2.
As a writer, creating content that my audience can understand and learn from is my single priority. Editing, the art of taking something good and making it even better, is my favorite writing task.
While in one of my first post-college jobs, I discovered my other professional passion: teaching. I worked as an academic advisor at the University of Utah and was able to teach a major exploration class for several semesters. Though I have worked in higher education since I was 18, I had never TA'd in college or taught before that point. I absolutely fell in love with education: being able to share knowledge with others, to help them solve a problem or accomplish a goal, is one of the most important jobs in the world (in my humble opinion, at least!). Eager to expand my teaching skills, I completed a certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Teaching is in my blood: my mother and grandmother are both educators. But it is so much more to me than genetic reverberations. It is a joy and honor to create learning experiences for others.