After 25 years working at top publishers, award-winning digital agencies and running Modern Parlance (my own multi-media content consultancy), I have the knowledge and skills to develop and manage communications strategies across traditional and online channels. I'm a hands-on manager, a detail-oriented professional and problem-solver, with outstanding organizational and people skills. I will meet your goals and exceed your expectations.

Skills and Strengths in Communication, Management, Technology and Media

• Exceptional research and analytical ability

• Strong project and team management skills

• Strong written and oral communication skills

• Experience managing media and public relations

• Thorough knowledge of online and social media landscape

• Experienced with extensive array of web development software & online publishing platforms

• Content strategy and development, writing and copyediting

• Intellectual asset management including digital archiving and curation

• Social media strategy and maintenance

• Information architecture and usability

Marketing and Digital Management

I've written on lifestyle topics such as food, travel as well as consumer advice, career development and personal finance. As you might expect from subjects that wide ranging, the audiences are similarly diverse. These are just a few of the places you can see my work as well as some additional pieces I've produced.

Travel and Tourism: as guest contributor to Boris-Johnson.com, the blog and commentary site of Boris Johnson - politician, journalist and current mayor of London - the Gotham Girl series supported a cross-promotional partnership between NYC's Mayor Bloomberg and London Mayor Boris Johnson. Pieces include: 

• Gotham Girl Comes to London

• Street Food Challenge

• Green Spaces

• Traffic: A Transatlantic Problem  

• Our Rich Literary History

• Sartorial Streets

Consumer Advice: Written for Cheapism.com, a website for those who don't want to spend a lot but want the most they can for their money. Pieces include what to expect and look for when purchasing: 

• Slow Cookers

• Rice Cookers

• Digital Photo Frames

• Mascara

• Lipstick

Career Development: Written for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Professional Practice Curriculum. Provides background and job prospect information on leading industries and is designed to assist engineers new to the field or established engineers looking for new challenges. Topics include:

• Choosing a Path

• Automotive Engineering

• Engineering in Consumer Sporting Goods

• Engineering in the Energy Sector

• Engineering in the Healthcare Industry

Website and Social Media Management: I run three  topical blogs of my own:

Fabulous Foodie (a culinary blog where my focus is food history, food trivia and the connection between food and the world at large). Posts of note:

• The Myths and Making of Mayonnaise: an informative and educational post that came about quite by accident.

• Shakespearean Noshes: proves that culinary curiosity can catch me anytime.

• Famine's Not Fabulous: a more serious turn on global food shortages once the media's oversimplification had finally driven me to

Greater Gotham (where over 10 years years of blogging experience come together with 25 years living in one of the greatest cities on earth). Posts of Note:

• Footloose and Fancy Free: one the wonders of walking in this, one of the greatest walking cities on earth.

• Tips on Holiday Tips: tackles one of the most delicate issues of life in the Big Apple.

• Greater Gotham Shopping Districts Series: guidance on navigating the abundance - or overabundance in some cases - of New York's retail choices.

Personal Parlance: where you will find articles on communication and marketing as well as opinion pieces on language and words. It is supported and affiliated with Modern Parlance's Twitterfeed.

Both Fabulous Foodie and Greater Gotham have related Pinterest boards in addition to their regular, ongoing updates and features.
 

Fabulous Foodie Board

Greater Gotham Board

Still Want More? For more writing samples, check out some additional pieces on lifestyle, career and food including:

• Get a Job, Start a Career  

• Engineering the Olympics 

• Eat Like A Grown Up 

• Greener Shade of Gotham

Publishing / Traditional Marketing: During my time at both scholarly and trade presses, I created a broad range marketing materials and strategies for general interest titles and developed targeted distribution strategies to optimize sales and increase adoptions of academic titles in college market. Some of these efforts included:

• Managing publicity events and projects, including author tours and launch parties

• Designing pages for key titles on company website

• Presenting titles at sales conferences

• Preparing sales forecasts, helping sales force anticipate key marketing trends

• Negotiating book club sales and serial rights

• Creating and executing direct mail and advertising campaign

• Managing company presence at exhibits and conferences

Digital Marketing and Project Management: As producer of interactive marketing and communications initiatives, I was responsible for timely delivery of design, content, and technical assignments for a range of clients in the financial services, consumer e-retail and non-profit arenas. Some project highlights included:

• Developed a series of extranets serving corporate and institutional clients of a leading mortgage lender. Sites involved extensive on-line maintenance, development of dynamic database driven content, high-level personalization and security, as well as collateral materials to educate a nationwide sales force. After site launch, continued to work with the client to find ways to add value to the sites and develop other related interactive initiatives.

• Managed development and maintenance of new Web site for a major environmental not-for-profit who sought to serve a more diverse audience and raise their public profile. In addition to restructuring of the site itself to meet the needs of each unique group of end users, a series of Web-based content management tools were developed to allow staff members to maintain site updates and extensive online content archive, customize news feeds, and manage membership and mailing lists with greater ease.

• Guided in-depth restructuring and redesign of a hospitality industry portal and newsletter from a big five consulting firm. Redesign reflected changes in industry to better reflect the global nature of the site's audience. The restructuring made updating and maintenance more efficient. Continued to work with the client to develop additional site features for the same audience.

• Managed password-protected on-line community and multi-level collateral system designed to facilitate communication between major IT equipment manufacturer and its most significant customers worldwide. Solicited licensed content, managed site updates, incentive programs, live events, and membership lists. Played major role in expanding site and collateral materials to additional audiences.

Freelance Digital / Marketing Consultant: As marketing and interactive consultant, I work with clients to assess their communications and marketing needs and develop effective strategies to fulfill them. I take on whatever level or role is needed to meet the client's project needs - providing materials and analysis to help clients develop a greater understanding of Web-based tools, and the online marketplace to strategic planning, assistance with content development and digital asset management.

• Telecom: as interim Marketing Director and Executive Operations Manager, I was responsible for the creation of multicultural marketing strategies for a start-up telecom company who needed aggressive, grassroots campaigns to reach new and underserved markets in the NYC metro area.

• Consumer Retail: Served as web and content consultant for an upscale home decor retailer in San Francisco.

• Publishing:  Created book development proposals for e-publishing programs for a specialty literary agency and guided several eBooks (fiction, literary studies and lifestyle titles) though the eBook production and distribution process.

• Sports and Gaming: Developed information architecture as basis of marketing and registration website for multi-venue sporting event.

• Non-profit: Consultant for well-established, national educational non-profit (with over 30,000 constituents) on Web site redesign, social media marketing and fundraising outreach. This included working with internal team to re-prioritize Web site usage and functionalities, assisting with vendor management, formulation of RFPs and evaluation of responses, development of strategic content plans and digital marketing strategies for expanding on-line fundraising efforts via web, social media and email newsletters; integrating those efforts with traditional fund-raising channels and materials.