
EDUCATOR
Lifelong learner with a curiosity for new subjects, new styles, and new approaches, experienced as a teacher, coach, and mentor.
Lifelong Learner
Some people place a higher value on experience than education. Some people believe a degree should be enough. I believe real expertise comes from blending formal education, instruction and academics with sleeves-up OJT, experience, and application.
I was always a great student. Third in my high school class. Dean’s list in a dual bachelor’s program at the University of Iowa, majoring in history and journalism. Top scholar in my master’s program at Temple University, where I studied journalism and mass communications with a focus on visual design and production. I was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha, the journalism and mass communication honors society, one of the oldest and most storied national collegiate honors societies.
More recently, I studied user experience with the Nielsen-Norman Group, one of the premier UX training groups, and passed the five tests required for its UX Certification —
mine is UXC#1007954.

Speaker
I have developed undergraduate course plans, led hands-on labs and classes, and taught large student groups the basics of publication design, desktop publishing, and mass communications foundations at Temple University. I supervised the acclaimed Dow Jones News Fund College Copy Editing internship program (and was a selectee as an undergrad).
I have built and led large, 70-participant design-thinking exercises for clients. I have led, developed, and managed a 25-person team of direct reports. I’ve been a featured J-school panelist on the future of design and communication.
I am passionate about mass communications history, media ethics, journalist safety, and news distribution, and a bit of a 1st Amendment/Free Speech nerd. America needs journalists.