Education:
Undergraduate (2007-2011)
I attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where I was chosen to be a part of both the Meyerhoff and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute scholarship programs. I graduated from UMBC in 2011 with a bachelor of science in biological sciences and a minor in creative writing. Go Retrievers!
Masters (2011-2013)
After UMBC I came a little closer to home (South Carolina) to attend the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. In 2013 I received my MPH in behavioral sciences with a focus in health communication.
PhD (2014-2017)
In the fall of 2014 I entered the mass communication doctoral program at UNC Chapel Hill as a Roy H. Park Doctoral Fellow in the School of Media and Journalism. I completed the the program in May 2017.
Work Experiences:
- During my masters program I worked on the communications team for two nutrition trade associations representing well-known clientele in the food industry.
- I’ve worked as a health news reporter for an e-health media company writing clear and practical health news stories for readers. My work has been published by the Huffington Post and Yahoo Health.
- I’ve completed a Scientific Writing Fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia in the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention.
- I’ve interviewed parents and teachers of 3 and 4 year olds across the state of North Carolina to better understand the challenges they face with regard to healthy eating, being physically active, and serving as healthy role models for the children in their lives. I’ve subsequently used the information that was learned from these discussions to develop health messages to which they would positively respond.
- After presenting these findings at a national health communication conference, I was approached by a representative of Let’s Move! Childcare to feature the program as a success story on their website, which I wrote.
- I’ve created content for a family health and wellness magazine for a National Institute of Health (NIH)-funded social marketing intervention program.
- I’ve worked on a separate NIH-funded social marketing campaign that was designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption during school lunch among 3rd and 4th graders in North Carolina.
- I’ve worked to develop a collection of success stories on implementation of healthy food guidelines in cafeterias for hospital and federal clientele.
- I’ve conducted focus groups for UNC’s Chancellor’s Office to understand students’ opinions about composting to help create campus wide composting initiatives.
Consulting Services*
My academic and professional experiences have given me intimate knowledge of the process through which effective health messages are created. My business is all about sharing this knowledge with you in a way that’s simple and most relevant for your business.
What can I do for you?
Specifically, I will work with you to…
- Develop a set of objectives that help you hone in on what you want your message to accomplish.
- Develop a survey or interview guide that will allow you to find out what your target audience thinks about the behavior you want them to perform.
- Create clear and engaging messages based on the feedback received from your audience.
- Take the first draft of messages and solicit feedback from your audience so they can be made even better.
- Determine how successful your messages were based on the objectives and goals we developed in the beginning.
*Consulting services will begin in the fall of 2017.