I was born and raised just outside of Detroit, the daughter of immigrants and a first-generation college student. I grew up with two older sisters and no cable, so we were either reading great stories or wreaking enough havoc to make a good story ourselves. When I was about 9, I saw my first Shakespeare play at the Stratford Festival in Ontario. After that I was a goner for all things literary.
Given my foundational love of character and narrative, I chose to study English and Psychology at university (really, it was a no-brainer). After my undergraduate work, I went on to earn my M.A. in English and Performance Studies from Miami University (Oxford, OH) and then my Ph.D. in English from Indiana University, with top distinctions. Even as my degree honed my writing, my research deepened my expertise on the media history of psychology and medicine, policy and law, science and statistics. I became fascinated by how different media shape our communication strategies, our connections to each other, and how language lives in the world. My graduate work culminated in a dissertation on biopolitics and the emergence of data storytelling. After defending said dissertation, I accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship and Faculty position at Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media and Communication. At Tech, I taught media history, writing and communication strategies to STEM and business-oriented majors. My job? Helping students communicate complex arguments and technical information to both insider and outsider audiences. I taught students how to build more effective presentations, leverage digital media tools for communication, utilize and synthesize data, write and design content for better audience impact.
While doing this work at Tech, I began to receive requests from other faculty and businesses who needed the same sort of guidance on communicating their brands, products and research strategically to target audiences. I started writing copy and designing for websites, blogs, executive reports, and other high-impact deliverables. That work quickly turned into consulting with executives on how to build their brand’s story, look and feel, and providing creative direction on full-funnel content marketing. My love for creative strategy led me to cross over into into full-time research and storytelling at Big Sea.
When I’m not collaborating with clients or our team of rock-star creatives, well, I’m still making stuff. I’m a member of the historic Atlanta Writers Club, where I workshop original fiction and nonfiction. I also write on criminal dissection and early anatomy, the history of the insanity plea, the rise of forensics in murder trials, and the eerie practice of anthropodermic bibliopegy. I love to stay on top of my research by writing blog posts, giving talks, taking up visiting research fellowships, and editing peer-reviewed articles for old colleagues. When my head isn’t bent over the keys or a book, I’m playing cards and board games with my husband, Jake, cooking, crocheting, or struggling to herd our four rescue animals: Maggie and Merritt (dogs), Matilda and Valkyrie (cats).
