I’ve always struggled to write ‘about’ sections for myself because I fluctuate between being a closed book and an oversharer. Plus I’m never quite sure what people actually want to glean from these things.
I live and work in Roanoke, Virginia - a place I picked because of childhood ties and because it’s absolutely beautiful 365 days a year (also there’s a ton of great craft beer.)
I started my career working for the Louisville Design Center. In my time there, I designed print newspaper sections for sites as small as the Fremont (Ohio) News-Messenger to as large as the Detroit Free Press. It was in Louisville that I ran my favorite 5K - the Hungry Turkey Run - a Thanksgiving 5K where at the end runners were given giant cinnamon rolls (I believe they now give out giant donuts, which is equally as amazing.)
In 2022, I started working for the USA Today Network - Tennessee as a sports planning editor and project specialist. I did a little bit of everything including, but not limited to, managing project timelines, planning sports sections, writing newsletters and designing visuals.
Since June of 2024, I’ve worked for Roanoke County as a Public Information Specialist. I’ve been told that sounds boring, but most of my friends (much to my chagrin) call me an influencer. I create videos for YouTube and social media including writing, planning, hosting and, for some short-form content, videography and editing. Not every day is sexy, some days I spend the better half of an hour debating how long a newsletter introduction should be.
In my non-work life, I play Ultimate, run, hike, read, write, draw, garden, craft, do DIYs, and watch sports. I am a Packers fan and I do think drafting a wide receiver in the first round of the draft you’re hosting (when you haven’t drafted one when you needed to) means there is a script.
I produce and host Roanoke County’s Out of the Office Podcast. In this episode, I am joined by Roanoke-based cyclist Gordon Wadsworth and John Oney from Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge to talk about the July 2025 USA Cycling events in the Roanoke Region.
Watch the podcast episode
I script, produce and host a recurring series to promote Roanoke County. In this episode, I coordinated with the Community Outreach Librarian to highlight some of the Little Free Libraries around the county.
Watch the Roam RoCo episode
Each year, Roanoke Valley Television, Angels of Assisi and the Regional Center for Animal Care and Protection team up to film a local Adopt-A-Bowl. This behind the scenes Reel captures all the day-of action. I filmed, edited, wrote and recorded the voiceover for this Reel. In the full video, I played host with my City of Roanoke counterpart.
Watch the Reel
I script, produce and host a recurring series to promote Roanoke County. In this episode, I went out to the regional fire and rescue training center to sit in on an emergency medical training day with the recruits.
Watch the Roam RoCo episode
In spring of 2025, I launched a recap series for Roanoke County’s Board of Supervisors meetings. These provide a condensed version of the twice-monthly meetings for quick reference.
Watch a Board in Brief episode
I wrote, filmed and edited this Reel to promote the Police Department’s Egg-Stravaganza event.
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I script, produce and host a recurring series to promote Roanoke County. In this episode, I venture up to the top of Dragon’s Tooth, a popular hike on the Appalachian Trail within the county.
Watch the Roam RoCo episode
I produce and host Roanoke County’s Out of the Office Podcast. In this episode, Megan Cronise and Lindsay Webb join the podcast to talk about the ongoing Roanoke Valley Greenway projects in Roanoke County.
Watch the podcast episode
I filmed and edited short profiles of Roanoke County’s Emergency Communication Center’s dispatch workers for Emergency Telecommunicators Week.
Watch the Reel on Kaylen
Roanoke County has an active employee engagement group for emerging professionals, RoCo Pros. They were looking to highlight the group more on social media to show off the various aspects of the county’s work and benefits. The introductory Reel filmed and edited by me lets citizens get to meet some of the county employees in various departments.
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Designed and illustrated the handouts for Roanoke County’s 2024 State of the County Address. The die-cut flyers combine the beauty of the region and recent economic growth. At the event, I also took photos from the county’s website and social media.
View photos from the address
In the spring of 2023, The Tennessean released its All-Decade Football Teams. I designed the illustrations and digital presentation for the stories as well as coordinated story rollout and digital promotion.
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I designed the on- and off-platform display for the Knoxville News Sentinel's preseason feature of Joe Milton, Tennessee's 2023 starting quarterback.
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I designed the social assets and wrote the Instagram posts promoting The Tennessean's annual Dandy Dozen, a ranking of the area's top recruits.
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I designed the social assets and wrote the Instagram posts promoting The Tennessean's All-Decade football team project.
During the summer of 2020, when the College World Series would normally have been played, The News Leader relived Missouri State's 2003 run in the CWS.
Before Selection Sunday, I prepared social assets for all of the men's and women's college basketball teams that the USA Today Network South Region covers. This allowed me and my teammates to quickly update the seeds and post to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to help generate buzz around one of the highest traffic-diving events of the year.
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After starting as a volunteer in the Woodland Gardens at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, I joined the team as a freelance designer and marketer. Here is a flyer I created to promote its Garden Series.
After reporter Paul Skrbina followed the Predators' mascot Gnash around for a day, I designed the digital presentation for the story on The Tennessean's website as well as created social assets for the story's promotion. The story was released as the Predators were fighting to stay in playoff contention and will be used as an evergreen story to repromote annually ahead of the season.
I designed social assets for The Tennessean to share on Facebook and Instagram to capitalize on interest around the Nolensville Little League team as they competed in the LLWS.
After starting as a volunteer in the Woodland Gardens at Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, I joined the team as a freelance designer and marketer. From 2019-2022 I designed the program for its annual fundraising gala.
During the 2020 season, I designed the Tuscaloosa News' GameDay section previewing each of Alabama's football games.
As a freelance designer and marketer for Creasey Mahan, I designed most of the signs displayed at the Butterfly Ball including all of the package posters for the silent auction.
To this day, this remains one of my favorite pages (and headlines!) I've ever done. While this centerpiece was designed for The Greenville News, The Lafayette Daily Advertiser is also part of the USA Today Network and I designed the season recap section for the champion Tiger.
Ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft I created social assets for all of the players that sites in the USA Today Network South Region covered who had a chance at being drafted. This made it easy for my teammates to update them the night of the draft and quickly share the images out on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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When I got this job, my friends started calling me an influencer, which is a little cringe. But I do write, plan and host a monthly podcast and two video series that promote Roanoke County. I also collaborate with departments to create short-form content for social media, including writing, planning, videography and editing.
I also develop promotional material for the county as necessary including articles for the website and printed material for events. Plus, I write for and edit the weekly internal employee newsletter.
At the core of my job, I collaborated with editors, reporters and the production team to build content plans for USA Today Network - Tennessee publications including the Nashville Tennessean and the Knoxville News Sentinel. I used audience analytics from Pars.ly and Google Analytics to inform our digital strategy and grow subscriptions. I also curated, edited and helped write newsletters for different target audiences including Nashville’s Daily Briefing.
For our enterprise work, I managed the project’s timeline and developed compelling visuals for on-platform and off-platform promotion.
As a team leader, I assisted in managing the production of daily print sports sections for the USA Today Network's Midwest and Ohio regions. I mentored designers and assisted with training, scheduling staff and employee relations. I also designed and page edited daily print sports sections and special projects.
During my time with the studio, including my time as a designer, I was part of the Diversity Steering Committee. As part of the group, I helped influence department policies around how we represent diverse communities in the newspaper. I designed, edited and helped write the intradepartmental newsletter our team created.
I was hired by the Louisville Design Studio after graduating from Roanoke College in 2016. I designed and page edited daily news and sports sections for USA Today Network publications including the Louisville Courier Journal and Cincinnati Enquirer. Football season was always our busiest time. I worked on a variety of special sections including the 2020 Alabama Gameday wraps (for the Tuscaloosa News), the 2019 Clemson Gameday section (for the Greenville News) and high school football preview sections galore.
I started volunteering at Creasey Mahan in its woodland gardens in 2018 and was brought on as a freelancer in 2019 to help with the Butterfly Ball, an annual fundraising gala. I designed the program for the gala and many other posters and printed material for the events at the preserve from 2019-2022.
In 2020, a lot of my efforts for Creasey Mahan switched to social media promotion. I created posts that highlighted the trails and wildlife at the preserve since in-person educational events were cancelled.
