I’m an educator and former journalist, healthcare communications specialist and fundraising professional.

If I could have, I would have been a professional student. But my love for all things reading and writing took me straight out of college and into a newsroom, where I learned to write – accurately, fairly and on deadline.

As it turns out, telling stories is a transferrable skill, one that translates well to the nonprofit industry. In the second chapter of my career, I worked as a communication specialist for two hospitals in St. Joseph Health, an Irvine-based Catholic health system. Crisis communication, media relations, donor relations, internal communication – we were a small outfit, so I did it all. Learned a lot and worked with some great people.

Today I have come full circle and returned to academia, this time as an educator. I teach public relations at the University of Oregon, with a focus on strategic writing and nonprofit communication. I love what I do. Beyond teaching, a colleague and I co-direct a writing support program for journalists and communicators called Writing Central.