I am both a journalist and a broadcast technician with more than 19 years in TV, print, and digital newsrooms. I graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Telecommunications. My focus was documentary production and I minored in meteorology.
As a journalist, I covered major local and national stories, including everything from presidential inaugurations, the tragic Red Line train accident at Fort Totten, the Navy Yard shooting, to multiple fires and fatal domestic incidents. Oh, we cannot forget the weather. So much weather! I have also covered the lighter side of life, including new business developments, cute animal happenings, space news, and technology advancements.
As journalists, we don’t forget the major stories that build the core of who we are as professionals. For example, so many people can tell you exactly where they were on September 11, 2001. I was a temporary receptionist for three days at WKYC-TV in Cleveland, Ohio. For President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, I slept on a mattress in a coworker’s Suburban in the WJLA station garage. This because they closed most of the bridges to get into the District of Columbia on January 20, 2009. As the 2013 Navy Yard Shooting unfolded, I had just arrived to a kids music event with my daughter at 9:30am. The television on the way in made me stop. I made two phone calls: one to my daughter’s caregiver and one to my boss. We danced for 20 minutes, and then I dropped her off early, knowing the day to come in our nation’s capital. These experiences are small parts of the strong and vibrant communicator that I am.
My story is infused with my background as a domestic violence survivor. As a result, my work is trauma-informed and victim-centered. My experience led me to become a Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence 40-hour certified domestic violence advocate. In 2021, my short story, “90 Seconds,” was published in Turnaround Inc.’s Purple Poetry Book.
For the past three years, I have been an active educator, including as an afterschool tutor and as a substitute teacher in the Montgomery County Public School System. My philosophy is to meet each student where he or she is and see what we can both do to raise that student up. I find joy in making connections and being apart of positive learning experiences.
In my free time, I love to encourage and explore with my daughter. My elementary schooler was able to craft an impressive argument that led me to purchasing a food printer for Christmas 2022. I’ve watched her explore interests from fashion design and food to painting and video game design. She loves to create and share, and I am very excited to see who she grows up to be.
I am an avid volunteer. When I have too much time on my hands, you can be sure to find me helping out at a library, a homeless shelter, food pantry, or community event.
My roommates and I care about the Earth a great deal. We try to choose foods and habits that reduce the pain we inflict on living things and the waste each of us creates on a daily basis. That is always a work in progress. We try to purchase local, organic, and humanely-raised foods. We try to minimize our food waste, and we are also participants in the City of Rockville compost program. We are currently trying our best to cook food at home and pack lunch, but that doesn’t always work after a long day driving past our favorite restaurants!
That said, I have a lot of goals for 2024. I started chapter two of another book I always promised myself I’d publish in my lifetime. I have a sewing machine I need to take out of the box and experiment with — a plan thwarted when I accepted my last long-term substitute assignment in 2023. Ha!
Thanks for reading about my life in 2024. Here’s to you having a wonderful year, too!