Six Roles, One Thread
Between these six roles and four different sectors, I’ve always carried one professional thread: curiosity that won't stay abstract. At EAB, that meant researching what actually made thirty colleges different from each other before writing a word about or to any of them. At Richmond Experience, it meant refusing to accept the shiny or most revered parts as the city's whole story. At Virginia Community Voice, it meant learning that narrative and community voice don't have to be in opposition with donors and investments, they just require intersectional strategy and care. Every stop on this list starts the same way: dig in, talk to the people who actually know, and turn what you find into something a group can get behind.
My other constant in my professional life is knowing where the edges are. I've spent six years in roles that didn't come with a manual, figuring out fast what's mine to solve and when it's time to bring in someone who's actually the expert. This skill is what lets me move between brand strategy, facilitation, and photography and still be doing the same three things every time: solving complex problems, building consensus, and creating experiences that let people feel included, represented authentically, and imagine, together, what's possible next.
EAB
Associate Copywriter & Partner Development Representative
At EAB, my first role was cold-contacting VPs of enrollment and directors of admissions across my territory to schedule sales meetings...which meant I had about ten seconds to say something worth their time. That pressure taught me precision. My role as a copywriter also showed me a pattern: colleges were genuinely distinct from each other, but most weren't identifying what made them different, or aligning that difference with an authentic brand voice. EAB taught me how to sell education, and a lot about how brands actually work.
EAB left me hungry to write for a more distinct voice. The Richmond Experience is where I found that opportunity.
The Richmond Experience
Content Creator
I came back to Richmond as an adult and had to relearn the whole city, and once I noticed how much digging it took to find its best parts, I wanted to shorten that search for everyone else. When I came to the Richmond Experience, that meant centering Black-owned and queer-owned businesses, and pushing past city limits into the surrounding region. I got good at place branding: finding what a business represents about their community and pulling that thread into the open. It also taught me how to develop social media that's sustainable, not just ambitious.
Lifting up Richmond's shiny, creative parts taught me the people who'd lived through all its seasons deserved the same care. Virginia Community Voice is where I learned to give it.
Virginia Community Voice
Communications & Brand Manager / Individual Investment Manager
I walked into Virginia Community Voice half-believing narrative and investment shouldn't touch, that asking for money would cheapen the story. I quickly discovered that assumption was incorrect. I learned It just takes a type of intersectional care than either one can provide alone, and strategic, impactful storytelling can put power back where it already lives: with the neighbors (beneficiaries), not the organization. During my time at the organization, I was able to guide and influence an internal reframe: investing in your brand doesn't take away from the people you serve, it helps you serve them better. One of my proudest accomplishments with this reframe was that I was able to get VACV its first official logo.
After VACV, I wanted to integrate the DEI principles I had practiced there into every campaign, with enough care to apply it outside my own demographic. IDEAS Generation is where I built that fluency.
IDEAS Generation
Fellow
The IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Social Justice) Generation felllowship was essentially a crash course in being a successful DEI practioner. I got to learn so many valuable lessons as part of the inaugural fellow cohort: Group facilitation taught me to watch for who isn't talking, not just who's struggling out loud, and to build the conditions that make it safe for them to speak. The fellowship also taught me about timing and capacity, primarily on how to keep dense, academic material on track without cutting off the room. I can look at any policy or piece of writing now and name, instantly, what elements are strengthening DEI at the organization, and what elements are creating barriers. IDEAS Generation didn't just train me in a framework. It convinced me inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and social justice are for everyone, which is why I bring them into every project since, named or not.
IDEAS Generation handed me the framework. Community Foundation is where I translated it into economic mobility work, at scale.
Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond
Marketing Officer, RVA Rising (inaugural position)
As the first dedicated staff member hired for RVA Rising, my role meant coordinating communications for a five-organization regional initiative with no playbook. The experience taught me patience, and real trust in a process that often looked slower than it felt. I also had the opportunity to contribute to overall Community Foundation work, including writing and photographing longform narratives on affordable housing and economic mobility, built for donors across a full spectrum of belief, without alienating any groups. One project I'm especially proud of is Reflected Legacy, a community activation I developed and carried out from first idea to final board, where Richmonders answered "What do you want your legacy to be?" on mirrored tiles. I also learned how to stage feedback: knowing when to suggest a reframe and when to let it sit. And, most especially, the role gave me real experience on how to pair both evidence and language for investment into a cohesive, impactful narrative.
My role with RVA Rising at the Community Foundation made it clear I wanted to get my hands dirty and see the whole picture. That's the work I'm building now.
Now: EIV, OutRVA, and Freelance
Right now I'm holding a few things at once: a role as the contract communications manager for Early Impact Virginia, a statewide nonprofit advocating and convening the home visiting system in the Commonwealth, through October 2026; an inaugural seat on the OutRVA Advisory Committee, centered on place-based advocacy and the queer community; and freelance brand and photography work. With EIV wrapping at the end of October, my calendar is opening up for what's next: my next full-time opportunity, freelance and contract projects, and the kind of role that lets me see the whole picture and build something to meet it. And maybe take some good photos while I'm at it!