Bio

Childhood & Family

So without boring you too much, I was born and raised in northwestern New Jersey in between three farms.  It’s about as rural as you can get – we didn’t have cable for most of my childhood because they didn’t run cable lines up in the boonies where we lived.  I’m the youngest of three children – my older brother and sister are twins so being outnumbered, I always wanted to be exactly three and a half years older than I was.

I went to regional high school where I learned some life lessons that looking back, I appreciate.  When I got to college I realized how sheltered some people could be and I was glad to have experienced a whole lot of crazy while having a semi-normal upbringing.

My parents are still happily married and I have now become very close with my siblings – I couldn’t ask for more from family.

School

Throughout high school, I wanted to be a journalist.  I had written for local papers and even had my own column and also became an editor at my school paper. When I got to the University of Delaware for my undergrad (or as I call it, the best school ever) I quickly changed my mind.  I was a Communication major (since Journalism was in the English program and I was not going to be an English major) and I learned that murder-fire-rape and rape-fire-murder are your best friends as a journalist.  I somehow stumbled into public relations and pursued it full force – along with minors in French, journalism (of course), and a Certificate of Business (just for background).  After a failed study abroad in Paris (I’m still emotional about it) and realizing after 8 years of French classes I could only write the language and not speak it, I swapped the minor for Interactive Media (aka web design) and have never regretted the decision.

Due to my obsessive planning and organization, I graduated Delaware a semester early in December 2009 so I could hang out and start grad school online.  I started at The New School almost immediately because I didn’t want to give up on learning or expanding on my knowledge of media.  And so, I started my MA online while living in Newark, Delaware. It was confusing to explain to people but I wasn’t giving up on the best four years of my life yet.

I finally graduated in spring 2012 while working full time.  Eventually, I’d like to put that degree towards teaching Communications… we’ll see.

Professional Life

After I graduated, while still going to grad school part time, I moved home and got my dream job at a public relations firm on none other than the Food Team – dream come true for my tastes!  I worked on various brands for General Mills (disclaimer!) doing traditional public relations, blogger relations, and email marketing.   While it was awesome experience, I realized the public relations world is not for me and as of August 2012, I transitioned into a new career in email marketing, working on Estee Lauder brands (second disclaimer!).

I currently live in Hoboken, NJ and there’s nowhere else I’d rather live (um, other than Europe).  The view is just better here.