
Content Strategist and Information Architect
San Francisco Bay Area

Content Strategist and Information Architect
San Francisco Bay Area
Content strategist (user research, style guides, editorial workflow), lead writer/editor, and information architect (IA) for nonprofit media startups. Former staff photographer at the San Jose Mercury News for five years and later pursued citizen journalism as a Newstex blogger syndicated via LexisNexis.
Advanced certification in blogging, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing, and closed-loop analysis. HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, MySQL. Final Cut Pro Studio 6 (SoundTrack Pro, Compressor). Able to master new systems with ease.
(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
2009 — 2009 (less than a year)
• Investigate racial/ethnic health disparities in East Palo Alto—home to one of the most densely populated immigrant communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Employ crowd sourcing and other collaborative journalism methods into newsgathering process. Direct a reporting network of university-level Minority Public Health Fellows and high school-level Youth Health Advocates.
• Devise and implement strategies for disseminating public health information (in Spanish and English) to at-risk populations and policymakers.
• Create original content for various multimedia-rich educational Web sites developed by Collective Roots; distribute news to mainstream media outlets.
(Public Company; TRB; Broadcast Media industry)
March 2007 — May 2007 (3 months)
• Produced daily traffic logs for KTLA-TV and maintained programming data for Sales and Promotion Departments.
• Analyzed outbound marketing campaign performance to identify, prioritize and execute on opportunities for improvement in marketing effectiveness.
• Provided expert advice in the areas of collaborative journalism, online community building and social media optimization for KTLA.com.
(Privately Held; Newspapers industry)
2002 — 2007 (5 years )
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS (circ: 240,000)
• Reported on stories and produced audio, video and photo content for the newspaper and its Web site.
• Edited use of photography for international, national, and local news in the paper's front section while coordinating with editors and designers to produce multimedia packages.
• Shared 2005 Executive Editor’s Award for Hurricane Katrina coverage including on-the-ground reporting; embedded with the California National Guard.
• Photography instructor and 1994 graduate: Mosaic, a Mercury News workshop at San Jose State University for minority high school students.
(Online Media industry)
2002 — 2007 (5 years )
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
2004 — 2006 (2 years )
* Launched a Literacy Through Photography Program for ESL fifth and sixth grade students at KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Heartwood Academy (a charter school) incorporating youth development model.
* Fund-raised for program operation including online community, public exhibition and live auction. Secured camera donations from Kodak plus $20,000 in donations and $2,500 in grants.
* Solicited voluntary involvement of professional journalists from San Francisco Bay Area media organizations. Five college interns instructed 100 students while 20 professionals served as mentors.
MLIS , Information Description and Organization, Web Design and Technology , 2009 — 2011 (expected)
4.0 GPA
AB, BA , Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity (Honors) and Studio Art & Art History , 1995 — 2000
• Won the Louis Sudler Prize in the Humanities and Creative Arts (2000)
• Placed second in 2006 Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition in newspaper editing division for multiple page feature story.
• Awarded second team prize for “Best Use, Interactive Publication/Media” and shared Honorable Mention in “Picture Editor of the Year” category in 2005 National Press Photographers’ Best of Photojournalism contest.
• Named a Visual Journalism Fellow by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and a Visual Task Force Fellow by the National Association of Black Journalists.
• Work featured in "LIFE: Year in Pictures," 2001.