FREELANCE WRITER  1999 to Present
Sole Proprietor. Full-time professional specializing in writing, editing, marketing and teaching.

• Editorial: Raleigh News & Observer (real estate), Our State, The Cary News (columnist), Cary Living, Pinehurst Magazine, Midtown Magazine, Southern Weddings, New Homes and Ideas and North Carolina State University’s Accolades magazine. Special features have appeared in the following national publications: Frontier, Meridian, WineMaker and QSR Magazine. Discussion leader for website MomsLikeMe.com, launched by Gannett, owner of USA Today. Speaker: Triangle Area Freelancers and UNC-Chapel Hill. Awards/Recognition: First-place winner in N.C. Press Club competitions (2006-2008), Honorable Mention in Writer's Digest 78th national writing competition (2009), finalist for Chicken Soup for the Soul's "Power Moms" book (2008).

• Corporate: Providing on- and off-site production and writing services for websites, annual reports, publications and newsletters; clients have included the Girl Scouts of America, Smithfield’s Chicken and Bar-B-Q, the Association of Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchisees (managing editor), and the World Council of Credit Unions (book editing).

• Educational: Worked as a “Writer in Residence” for Wake County schools through the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County (Carroll Middle School, St. Timothy's, Grace Lutheran School, St. Raphael Catholic School) with students in grades 4-8, focusing on journalism, creative writing and preparing students for the state's annual standardized writing test. Nationally, writing standardized test passages for middle school students through MetaMetrics, Inc.

1998-1999
Tallahassee Democrat - Tallahassee, FL
Assistant Marketing Editor. Responsible for editing and designing the Homes section distributed weekly with the Sunday Democrat. Duties included: Designing cover story and all inside pages; importing photos and wire text; writing captions and headlines; editing copy; coordinating photo shoots and freelance writers; compiling real estate charts; and writing stories for several publications.

1994-1998
Advertising/Public Relations/Copywriting: Worked as a media buyer for McKinney & Silver (Raleigh, NC), in public relations for the Grand Hyatt Regency (Cincinnati, OH) and as a copywriter for Fringe Benefits Management Company (Tallahassee, FL).

Education:
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC
B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication (1994) (http://www.jomc.unc.edu/)
North Carolina State University – Raleigh, NC                                 M.A. in English/Creative Writing (2008)
( http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/creativewriting/)