What is your current position?
I’m the online content editor for the digital strategy team, within the SMPH Office of Strategic Communications.
When did you start working in SMPH? At UW?
I started working at SMPH in January of 2023. I started at UW in August, 2010.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Our team recently launched a totally new version of med.wisc.edu, along with three other web properties: wmaa.med.wisc.edu, nachp.med.wisc.edu and wpp.med.wisc.edu. During those web redesign/launch projects, I worked with stakeholders and team members every day on creating and editing content. Now, my day is typically more varied. Today, I am working on content for a new website we’re creating for the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. I’m also writing a content brief for an immersive web story celebrating Dean Golden’s legacy. And I’m writing a featured researcher blurb for this page.
What is your workplace superpower?
My workplace superpower is synthesizing complex information into plain language that appeals to a general audience.
What is something personal you keep on your desk?
Family photos! And a rock from Bernie’s Rock Shop that my supervisor’s son picked out as a gift for my first day on the job.
Where are you from originally?
A hard question to answer, since my dad was a military officer and we moved often, starting when I was a baby. I’ve lived in Illinois, Tennessee, Japan, Hawaii, Virginia, West Texas, New Jersey, West Virginia. After graduating high school in West Virginia, I went to college in Ohio, moved to Chicago for work, and ended up raising a family in Madison, Wisconsin. The longest I’ve lived anywhere is Madison – so I think of it as my hometown.
What is your favorite place to spend time in Madison? In the world?
My favorite place in Madison is the springs and wetlands off Monroe Street. I’m on that boardwalk at least once a week. My favorite place in the whole world is Paris.
What are you reading right now?
Right now I’m reading Lucia Berlin’s Evening in Paradise, a collection of short stories. I listen to a few French podcasts and one amazing podcast called Hot and Bothered, from Not Sorry Productions. It’s a smart take on romance novels (think Jane Austen not Harlequin). One of their best is “Live from Pemberley,” a special series that does a close read of every chapter of Pride & Prejudice with two irreverent scholars that are so witty and fun that I wish I was friends with them in person.
Share one fact about yourself that you co-workers might not be aware of.
I competed in 4-H horse shows as a kid.
Shouldn’t redheads be extinct by now?
The theory that redheads are going extinct has been debunked, according to National Geographic. That comes as a big relief to me and the 2% of other people who carry the gene for red hair.