Bio

You already know I’m “an award-winning writer/editor specializing in profiles, Q&As, and case studies; career change and higher education; business; nonprofits; and grammatical near-perfectionism.”

What else?

Professional background:

** Director of communications at Experience Works, a nonprofit that puts older, low-income people to work in 30 states. I managed three staff, four contracts, and our budget, oversaw the website, and acted as media relations deputy … created weekly board and staff e-newsletters … wrote case studies, talking points, donor appeals, news releases, and daily Facebook copy (improved response almost 400% in one year!) … edited website copy, grant proposals, donor appeals, webinars, surveys, and official pubs … produced our calendar/policy handbook two months earlier with 15% fewer pages and no loss of necessary content … managed the process to find a website redesign firm from RFP to committee’s choice … and plenty more.

** Managing editor at The Washingtonian for almost 13 years. That’s the city/regional magazine of Washington, DC, where I coordinated editors, designers, and production staff to get 152 issues to press and oversaw a copyeditor, four fact checkers, and a proofreader. When not in production, I was interviewing founders of charities, researching medical mysteries, writing about everything from career changes to education to cancer, promoting the latest issue on WTOP, and blogging about a Kennedy who’s bad at politics.

** Senior editor, Currents, a nationwide magazine for campus professionals. I spent eight years covering institutional advancement – philanthropy, fundraising and donor/corporate relations, ethics, government relations, and alumni publications – as well as determining the editorial calendar with the boss, hiring writers, profiling professors, and checking proofs.

** Deputy editor of Independent Banker, a nationwide monthly trade magazine. I coordinated editorial staff in DC with our design vendor in Chicago to shift production a week earlier than before. Taking first read, I edited articles explaining to readers how legislation and regulations in play would affect their daily work. I tracked submissions, edited e-newsletters and news releases, and wrote – a lot.

Other skills:

** I can ghostwrite. For three chairmen of the Independent Community Bankers of America, I combined their opinions with staff white papers and interviews to ghostwrite a folksy, factual op-ed column every month. I also wrote several pieces of an AARP book on improving communities, a book foreword for a healthcare CEO, talking points for the CEO of Experience Works, a monthly column for an ICBA senior VP, and collaborative op-eds and campaign pieces for three Montgomery County officeholders.

** I bring life to words. For a Washington City Paper cover story on the CrisisLink hotline, I captured a chilling conversation between a wide-eyed call taker and an anonymous man who said he “just wanted to hear a comforting voice” before he died. In Washingtonian’s tribute to the founder of the Carol Jean Cancer Foundation, I noted a swimming-pool scene complete with shrieking teenagers, their artificial limbs tossed to the side near the towels.

** I know books. More than an editor on half a dozen books published by Foreign Policy, Island Press, Piemonte Press, and others, I’m the proud sold-out author of Innkeeping Unlimited: Practical, Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your B&B and Win Repeat Business.

** I might make you laugh. My songs and sketches have been performed for up to 800 people (by Hexagon, “Washington’s only original political satirical musical comedy revue”), skewering everything from Pepco to Jeopardy! to the White House dinner crashers. You need a sense of humor in this business!