Biography

 Act I: Puppets, Portland & Prague

From Idaho and Beyond

I was born in California, but my family moved to Idaho before I was old enough to form an opinion about living there. One of my earliest memories is of being in church, surrounded by puppets and singing voices, especially my mom's. By second grade, I was a full-blown singing and puppetry enthusiast, hauling around a small suitcase stuffed with puppets. I was always ready to stage an impromptu performance, whether people asked for it or not.

One afternoon, my dad summoned me to whip up a simple design for a puppet stage. Little did I know, that sketch would spark a design masterpiece that became the grand red stage for my traveling extravaganza, complete with cringe-worthy magic tricks and bad jokes, boisterous singing, roller skating, and dynamic puppet theatrics that would make even the most dyspeptic audience member smile. My brother and cousins and fellow library club members joined this ragtag troupe, and before we knew it, we were hitting the road for real paying gigs! But once I got my own car and discovered Depeche Mode, I hung up my puppets for good. I put away my childish things, but I kept on singing and eventually landed lead roles in college opera performances.

Portland
My first job out of college in Portland, Oregon, was as a singing waiter on a boat cruising the Willamette River. Around the same time, I started writing arts and culture features for local alternative weeklies, which introduced me to a parade of fascinating characters, none more memorable than Boy George, who was somehow even more iconic in person.
 

An International Perspective

Fueled by wanderlust, and lured by the brooding literary mystique of Franz Kafka, my favorite writer, I moved to Prague. Expecting existential revelations and shadowy strolls through foggy cobblestone alleys, I was instead greeted at every corner by Kafka's face emblazoned on every type of tchotchke, and the haunting realization that the father of modern alienation had become reduced to merch.

Still, Prague worked its strange magic. I taught English by day and worked in a nightclub by night. And in what may have been the most unintentionally Kafkaesque moment of all, I starred in a Czech TV commercial for AutoCont Computers. The plot? A man (me) is pulled from his bed by a blinding light and drawn to a warehouse, where he stands alongside a crowd of glassy-eyed strangers, staring blankly at computers. It was equal parts tech ad and existential nightmare. Kafka would have approved, I think.
 

Living abroad deepened my ability to adapt, connect with wildly different audiences, and find creative inspiration in the surreal, the absurd, and the oddly fluorescent.
 

Act II: Books, Brands & the Big Apple
 

My professional path in marketing and content strategy took shape at Penguin Random House in New York City. I managed email marketing campaigns, SEO strategies, social media initiatives, and digital advertising. I led groundbreaking B2C and B2B email newsletter programs, achieving subscriber growth of 25% year-over-year and open rates that soared past industry benchmarks. 

I also wrote, produced, and occasionally starred in video content, some of which won awards, and all of which involved a healthy dose of controlled chaos. Working at Penguin taught me how to blend storytelling with strategy, and how to survive in a building where authors, marketers, and spreadsheets all collided at unsafe speeds.

Act III: High Desert Strategy

Returning to Idaho, I pivoted into healthcare marketing, which combines all the drama of publishing with higher stakes and fewer tote bags. At Blue Cross of Idaho and later at Premera, I developed content strategy, demand generation campaigns, and launched an SMS marketing channel that boosted engagement and satisfaction and promoter scores. 
 

I also played a crucial role in Medicare Advantage marketing, optimizing enrollment content and streamlining processes to save resources and improve efficiency.

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At my core, I am a hybrid: part artist, part strategist, part escapee from a metaphorical dystopian warehouse full of glowing screens. I live at the intersection of creativity and data, story and system. Whether I’m writing copy, designing a campaign, or analyzing performance reports, I’m always asking: How can we make this more impactful?
 

This site is a reflection of that journey. A place where art meets strategy, storytelling meets design, and creativity survives the algorithm.

 

Act IV: Common Ground

Housing, Marketing & the Work That Stays

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My current chapter brings all of this experience, performance, publishing, healthcare, systems thinking, into a space where the stakes are tangible and the impact is immediate: affordable housing.
 

I work in marketing for The Housing Company, a nonprofit developer and operator of affordable apartment communities and a key part of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association. Our work is rooted in a simple but profound belief: stable housing is foundational. It shapes health outcomes, educational success, economic mobility, and community resilience.
 

At The Housing Company, marketing isn’t about aspiration or excess. It’s about clarity, access, and trust. It’s about translating complex eligibility requirements into human language. About reaching people who don’t see themselves reflected in traditional housing ads. About reducing vacancy without inflating cost. About honoring dignity while operating within compliance, regulation, and reality.
 

My role spans strategy, systems, and storytelling. I build marketing frameworks that support lease-ups and long-term occupancy. I create campaigns that balance data with empathy. I develop tools, templates, and processes that help property teams do their work better, faster, and with fewer surprises. Every decision is filtered through a practical question: Does this help someone find and keep a home?
 

In many ways, this work feels like a return to community, to service, to a quieter form of creativity. The puppets are gone, the stages are different, but the impulse remains the same: make something understandable, welcoming, and alive for people who need it.

Affordable housing marketing sits at the crossroads of policy, design, communication, and care. It demands rigor without cynicism and optimism without illusion. It is less glamorous than publishing, less abstract than healthcare, and more grounded than anything I’ve done before.
 

It’s also the work I intend to keep doing.
 

This act isn’t about reinvention. It’s about alignment.
About putting story in service of stability.
About finding common ground—and helping others do the same.