Highlights/Major Projects:
Master’s Capstone
In the Truman School, in lieu of a thesis students do an applied project for an organization or a research paper to make recommendations about a policy issue. I did my capstone over the summer, and wrote a paper about the growth of the city of Columbia, Mo. and whether or not the city council needed new members to adequately represent the city’s population. This involved research into the city’s history and past growth patterns and academic literature about representation in local government, in addition to interviews with current council members, data-mining citizen surveys and comparative analysis of other cities of similar size in the region. The paper is available upon request.
UMSystem.edu/Advancing Missouri
While working for the UM System as a strategic communications assistant, I was involved in developing the Advancing Missouri PR campaign. Advancing Missouri is designed to educate Missourians about how the university system affects the lives of the state’s citizens in ways including but not limited to education, such as highlighting research/economic development and community service activities. Part of this project included work on the transition to a new System Web site, which includes a map that allows citizens to see the economic and educational impact of the university in their county and stories about the university’s outreach in their community. Part of my job was gathering, generating and posting this data into the CMS and making sure that there was data and at least one story for every county in the state.
Lambda Chi alumni newsletter
I’ve been in charge of the alumni newsletter for my chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity for about 6 months now. Since then, I’ve redesigned the newsletter and I’ve tried to bring in more diverse types of content and more “news” stories about things that are happening rather than traditional newsletter blurbs about upcoming events and meeting minutes. I’ve also tried to expand the delivery mechanisms for it, by using Scribd as a host and distributing the PDF via links on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the e-mail listserv. Scribd has allowed us to see that since we started this new system, our readership has almost tripled (May 2011: 67 reads, July 2011: 88 reads, Sept. 2011: 109 reads, Dec. 2011: 190 reads).
Resumé
Click here to download a PDF.
Sections:
Education • Work Experience • Civic Engagement • Skills and Awards
Education
The University of Missouri | Columbia, Mo.
March 2010-Aug. 2011
M.P.A., Public Affairs/Nonprofit Management
The George Washington University | Washington, D.C.
Aug. 2009-Jan. 2010
M.A., Media and Public Affairs
Transferred prior to completion
The University of Missouri | Columbia, Mo.
Aug. 2005-May 2009
B.J., Print and Digital News
B.A., Political Science
St. Louis Priory School | Creve Coeur, Mo.
Aug. 1999-May 2005
High School Diploma
Work Experience
St. Louis University School of Law | St. Louis, Mo.
A private, Catholic university run by the Jesuit order.
• Marketing Web Developer, April 2012-present
Working with the faculty and staff of the SLU Law School to develop content for online and social media platforms, and researching and planning strategies for online public relations, communications and marketing.
University of Missouri System | Columbia, Mo.
The governing body of the state university system.
• Student Assistant/Projects Intern, Feb. 2010-Aug. 2011
Helped coordinate messaging between departments, Helped with PR and communications tasks, Made corrections and updates to the system Web site.
National Taxpayers Union and Foundation | Washington, D.C.
A fiscal policy advocacy organization.
• Communications/Gov’t Affairs Intern, Sept. 2009-Jan. 2010
Wrote news and opinon pieces for publication, helped update press lists and craft multimedia, worked with social media and Web projects, helped with policy research and related projects.
National Republican Congressional Committee | Washington, D.C.
The U.S. House Republicans’ elections committee.
• Communications Intern, Sept. 2009-Oct. 2009
Helped update press lists, distribute press releases and update information and news links on the committee’s Web site.
Columbia Missourian | Columbia, Mo.
Columbia’s morning newspaper, operated by the Missouri School of Journalism. Circulation: approximately 5,500.
• Teaching Assistant, May 2009-Aug. 2009
Helped new designers and copy editors, slot edited stories, posted stories to the Web, designed news and sports pages, proofed pages, helped put together the newspaper’s home page for the next day
• Page Designer, Jan. 2009-May 2009
Designed cover and inside news pages
• Copy Editor, Aug. 2008-Dec. 2008
Edited news and sports content
• Public Safety Beat Reporter, May 2007-Aug. 2007
Covered issues involving courts and Columbia area law enforcement.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Milwaukee, Wis.
Milwaukee’s metro daily newspaper. Circulation: 405,355
• Copy Desk Intern, May 2008-Aug. 2008
Edited on the universal (news and business) and features desks.
The Maneater | Columbia, Mo.
The independent student newspaper of the University of Missouri. Circulation: approximately 9,000.
• Editor-in-Chief, May 2007-May 2008
Managed the staff and coordinated content for the newspaper.
• City, State and Nation Editor, May 2006-May 2007
Coordinated coverage of local and state news, including award-winning coverage of the 2006 midterm elections. Also coordinated special sections on housing and employment for MU students.
• Reporter and Page Designer, Nov. 2005-May 2006
Covered news in a variety of sections and designed news and features pages.
Civic Engagement
• Lambda Chi Alpha, Gamma-Kappa chapter Alumni Association vice president for communications, chapter vice president for standards and vice president for fraternity education
• Association of Mizzou Public Affairs Students member
• MU Student Fee Capital Improvement Committee member
• MU Committee on Student Organizations co-chairman
• MU New Greek Education leader, Fall ‘08
• Boone County election judge
Skills
• Experience with Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Creative Suite CS2, CS3 and CS4, HTML and Django Web design
• Seven years of coursework in French
• Experience and coursework in social networking, online media and media management
Awards
• State of Missouri Bright Flight Scholar
• Associated Collegiate Press 2006-2007 Pacemaker Award
• Missouri College Media Association 2007 Awards for Journalism Excellence for in-depth reporting (1st place for 2006 election coverage) and special section (2nd place, 2006 voter guide)