My title is Associate Director of Public Relations

But really I’m a right brain/left brain cheerleader, storyteller, mentor, advocate, interviewer, coach and mom.

• I got into this business because I was curious about watching, understanding and explaining human behavior and motivation.  I scratched that itch as a feature reporter for a while, and then evolved into a consumer product PR agency gal.
• I think the smartest thing anyone said about marketing is “Make it simple. Make it memorable.”  (Leo Burnett)
• The road taught me the value of always carrying a war bag.  The random contents of my war bag would have enabled me to win the prize waiting behind Monty Hall’s “Let’s Make a Deal” door number one.
• I grew up in Hecker, Illinois, pop. 324. It taught me that everywhere there’s something to explore and learn from, such as shriveled cornfields, clumps of cattails, stagnant puddles and rotting hedge apples.
• Whenever I strike up a conversation with a stranger, that’s my mother coming through.
• I will always ask “what’s your point of view?”
• When I hear news anchors and networks seeking celebrity and ratings through ranting, editorializing and spewing bias, I rant.
• The first thing I ever sold was my handmade multi-colored crocheted bookworms for a quarter at Metzger’s Hardware and Grocery.  I was seven.
• If my life has a soundtrack, it’s “Saturday Night Fever.” I take pride in “Staying Alive.”  And strongly believe that we should be dancing.
• The first marketing or ad I remember was for “Easy Bake Oven.”  I got mine the year they premiered the avocado green model; it matched our shag carpet.
• When I’m not doing this I am being reintroduced to the world’s wonders through the lens of my tween-aged son.
• I went to school at SIU-Edwardsville and studied Journalism because we couldn’t afford Mizzou.
• My favorite books are by Willa Cather.  They teach me why my grandmother was resilient and grateful.  She too grew up in the Sandhills of Nebraska.
• The way I like to work is relying on a paper-kept to-do list to keep me organized.
• The best place I’ve ever visited is Machias Seal Island, near the US border with Canada in the Gulf of Maine.  The remote 19-acre rock outcropping hosts one of the world’s largest breeding colonies of Atlantic Puffins.
• I refuse to quit asking who, what, why, where, when and how.
• A ticked off copperhead terrifies me.
• What I bring to each assignment is research.
• I believe this business is all about making the right impression.
• I’m good at this because my primary charge for 20 years has been to create buzz that skeptical media will bite on.