Welcome to my digital portfolio.

   Telling your story has been my privilege for more than 20 years as a communicator, writer, reporter and editor.

   My life has been an adventure and I certainly hope my work reflects just how privileged I've felt being able to tell great stories. I've written about nearly every aspect of life, which has taken me to houseboats on the Black Warrior River, hotly contested school board meetings over unitary status and outsourcing, angry crowds confronting their government over everything from over taxation to secret meetings, murder scenes with the victims still laying on the front porch, trawling boats where I learned how to sort shrimp from strange stuff pulled in nets from the Gulf of Mexico, National Guard helicopters where I saw hurricane flood waters overtake the Louisiana coast, pulp and paper mills where I watched paper made and massive plants erected, the Alabama River where the ghosts of native Americans still chant along the banks, monuments erected in memory of war heroes and protesters waving signs against wars, the longest vertical shaft coal mine in the world that later collapsed and killed 14 miners, union strikes and the meetings organized to stop unionizing, rose beds bursting with confederate roses,

   I often stood aside murderers, poachers, pro-lifers and pro-choicers, lawyers on both sides, commissioners and council members who insisted I attend meetings or kicked me out of meetings for executive sessions, police helping me or trying to keep from discovering they were stealing weapons from evidence lockers, and, most of all, a myriad of wonderful people who wanted to help in any way they could and I appreciated them all.

   I've been threatened in every way, thrown off property or demanded I come on property, doors slammed in my face, accused of destroying cities or called a hero, and hugged sweetly by Headstart youngsters.

   The road from reporter to writer is lined with overcoming or ignoring fear to respectfully immerse yourself in the hopes, dreams, victories, defeats and wonders of the human condition. We are all bound by our courage to step forward in life every day, and, hopefully, driven by an even greater hope that our voice will be heard in a very noisy world. I wasn't motivated by a gotcha attitude, but rather an insatiable desire for knowledge and so much appreciating the people who indulged my quest. I told the hard stories about corruption, but always had my eye out there for the people that walked in life by the grace of God. It could be the man who lived in a school bus in the country or the weeping family of a Vietnam vet who apparently had a flashback and was shot to death by State Troopers when he fled in his car the wrong way on the interstate.

   Yes, we all walk in this life, but not all in grace.

   I will tell you there is corruption out there, no doubt no surprise to anyone, but I stood alongside the ones who suffered from it and held in tears as they recounted stolen retirement funds, molested children, murdered family, legal battles over work injuries, everything lost in hurricanes,

    Reporters aren't immune to calamities either.

   My first day on the job at my first newspaper I covered the New Year's baby, which turned out not to be an American citizen that violated the rules and had to be sorted out by lawyers. On one of my weekend duty shifts, someone called in their own obituary because they were wanted by the law, which we discovered when family members demanded to know who called it in and resulted in the policy of only taking obits from funeral homes. On an emergency call, I bulleted to the fire scene and nearly drove right into a downed power line drooping across the road and that ended up tapping my windshield. I still owe thanks to the fire chief for yelling, "Hey Cajun, powerline!" and for good brakes. My life was threatened when a busted poacher yelled out my name and accused me of killing his mother for reporting the story about his unfortunate incarceration. It turned out we knew each other because I had worked with him on a story a week or two earlier. When covering the location of a proposed bypass, I nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, but I think we were both trying to get away so I was spared the bite although a heart attack was not out of the realm of possibility as I ran for the car. Sent to cover a tornado in a small town, I was on the highway when another round of storms hit so intensely that I couldn't even see my shoes enough to run. Our photographer nearby saved me by yelling to get in his car, which took considerable effort to dodge the splinters and exposed nails strewn everywhere.

   There were the near misses, too.

   I'm still grateful I never found the tiger and the exotic poisonous snakes, including a cobra, that were reported to police and I went out to cover. However, I was on an assignment interviewing an old lady in her house when a chicken popped up from a hole in the floor.

   Over time, you will become wiser than ever expected.

  

  

   

   I have more than 20 years experience in communications as an award-winning reporter, writer, editor and project manager. My work - stories and photographs - have been published in newspapers, magazines, promotional collateral and webzines, as well as social media and blogging. I've worked as a features editor, associate editor and sections coordinator professionally and contributed extensive work to numerous projects distributed locally and nationally.

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• ​Award-winning writer, reporter, editor and project manager with more than 20 years experience in communications, including weekly and daily newspapers, magazines, multi-platform work including print and digital content.

• Meets deadlines.

• Exceeds expectations.

• Experienced in software including Microsoft Office Suite, Photoshop, video editing including Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Acrobat Pro, as well as content management systems including Krang.

• Experienced telecommute worker.

• Strong planner.

• Photographer

• Experienced with desktop and Mac computers, as well as related software such as Entourage.

• Experienced interviewer.

• ​Knowledgeable in AP style and libel law.​