I am an internationally published writer and editor and an award-winning, nationally recognized web developer with thirteen years of professional experience. I have been an editor and writer for several major print and web publications, including The Prague Post, Texas Music Magazine, Experience Austin, Austin American-Statesman, Citysearch, and The Frisky. Technical skills include front- and back-end web development and design and a strong interest in social media, with proficiency in software applications including Dreamweaver, SQL Server, Coldfusion, Photoshop, and many others.
I am currently the Webmaster for The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE), a research and service initiative of the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin.
I’ve been based out of Austin since the mid ’90s, aside from a period working as a freelance writer for The Prague Post and a web editor for globopolis.com (an online city guide to Central and Eastern European capitols) in Prague, Czech Republic. I am an alumni of The University of Texas at Austin (Bachelors of Journalism and Czech with two years of film study in Radio-Television-Film) and completed a year of work toward a Master of Arts at St. Edward’s University.
Early on, I fell in love with design in high school–learning to do advertising design with a pen and paper, and occasional computer-assisted typesetting and an X-acto blade. I began learning journalism and photography about the same time, dabbling in a B&W dark room, and a couple of years later, I discovered Super 8 filmmaking. As a teen, I also was a BBSer long before everyone had Internet access; a few years later it was only natural for me to hop on the dot com bandwagon. So you can see the confluence of interests and skills that led me down the winding road to where I am now.
In my spare time, you can find me enjoying live music, traveling, SCUBA diving, taking photographs, Super 8 filmmaking, jewelry making, crafting and sewing, swimming or hiking with my two rescue dogs and my husband, with whom I co-own Pharis Productions, LLC.
In 2010, Michael and I launched Nostalgia Film, a Super 8 film & video boutique production company for weddings and other occasions.
In 2009, I launched SoCoDivka Designs, a vintage-inspired jewelry line full of bold color, which can be found online or at Lovely Austin.
I continue to take a limited number of freelance web design and communications projects, so please contact me today to discuss creating a site for your business, assistance with your editing and writing projects, or consulting.