A bit more about me

I'm not one of those people who always wanted to be a journalist. My first college major was pre-medicine, and I played around with a few more before giving mass communication a try. Then, I took a writing class with a requirement to get published somewhere --anywhere. I soon found myself  sitting in the editor's office at my hometown semi-weekly, begging him to publish my first-ever real newspaper story.

He did.

I thought he was just being sympathetic to a local girl threatened with failing a college course. But wouldn't you know, he asked me to do more freelance stories, and my love for journalism was born.

After graduating from Louisiana State University in 2003 with a mass communication/journalism degree and a minor in Spanish, I took a job at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La. I was the "region" reporter, and it was a great first job. I did cool stories and investigations on things like arsenic-tainted well water and prisoners evacuated during Hurricane Katrina.

In 2006, my husband -- a TV videographer -- and I moved to Charlotte, N.C. That's when I landed, almost accidentally, in online journalism. I taught myself HTML, CSS, Photoshop and more, and I soon became an online evangelist in my newsroom. This site was designed for a class in web design at UNC Charlotte, where I learned Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash. I love talking about the future of journalism online, and I'm always interested in ideas and conversations about new ways to cover news.

I blog about what I'm learning as a web producer, as well as various other intersections of the Internet and society. The focus is still evolving, but check it out and let me know what you think.

Here's my full resume.

 

My favorite links

WCNC.com -- I work here.

Charlotte.com -- We partner with them. They're awesome.

TechCrunch - Great blog on tech news, much of it directly relevant to journalism. It's addictive.

E-media Tidbits - Poynter's blog about online journalism. Lots of great ideas from here.

Huffington Post - Whatever your political leanings, HuffPo does some really smart things with news presentation, and they know what makes people click and take their stuff viral.

The Superficial - Addictive celebrity news. Shameful, but just try not to scroll. I dare you.