About me 

1) I believe in the power of story. Our stories show the world who we are and light the way to who we can become. 

2) I have a hungry mind. My curiosity demands a steady diet of blogs, courses and library books. My years as a journalist gifted me with the habit of reading a newspaper every morning. And yes, Grandma reads it in hard copy.

3) I'm a nature nut. My creativity restores itself by trail running, road and mountain biking, rock climbing, snowshoeing, alpine and AT skiing with a little surfing and paddling thrown in just to keep things juicy.

4) I laugh at my own jokes.  A co-worker busted me on this. It's true; I crack myself up. I'll laugh at all of your jokes too. A sense of humour that runs from goofball to sinister led me to improv comedy, an art form that's made me a bold brainstormer and a keen collaborator. 

Work

FREELANCE SENIOR WRITER AND COPY DIRECTOR
June 2019 – Present

Freelancing has been great to me. I specialize in helping performance apparel companies create clear, potent sales messaging that also pushes their brands forward. I’m on monthly retainer with my friends at lululemon to coach their product eduction writers, providing feedback on their work, as well as creating and presenting frequent workshops to help develop their skills.

ARITZIA
HEAD OF COPY

May 2018 – June 2019
At Aritzia I radically modernized the tone of voice, built a solid team (one of my hires is the current Copy Director), helped implement a SEO plan that sharply increased revenue and created a naming system that both streamlined the process and pushed the brand forward.

LULULEMON
EDITOR, CAMPAIGN EDITORIAL / SENIOR COPYWRITER, CAMPAIGNS
MAY 2016 – MAY 2018
At lululemon, I’m known as someone who deeply understands the culture and voice of the brand. I edit all long-form campaign and product editorial writing, coach young writers, and am at the forefront of defining how we’ll show up through storytelling in the future. I also function as a senior writer, most recently leading the copy of a highly successful national campaign on how gratitude is good for our health. That campaign included store, social and out-of-home assets as well as two long-form editorial features. 

LULULEMON
MANAGING EDITOR, PRODUCT EDUCATION
MAY 2016 – AUGUST 2016
When promotion time came around, I was offered my choice of this role or the one above. It was a tough choice as I have a real passion for powerful product education. Ultimately, I chose an editorial pathway but supported our team by also covering this role until we were able to hire for it. During my tenure, I conducted three rigorous product education content audits and led the team through a series of hard-skills writing boot camps. I also led the writers through a series of product-naming workshops that empowered them to become experts at this challenging and valuable skill.  Recently, I also managed the content of a series of product education videos and developed an interview and coaching process to help our designers show up powerfully on camera. . 

LULULEMON
COPYWRITER, GLOBAL STORYTELLING
DECEMBER 2014 – PRESENT
One the accomplishments I'm most proud of is coming up in this role is coming up with the inspiring, goosebumpy phrase that lululemon is chose to use as its brand ethos statement.  In addition, I led copy direction for the SeaWheeze Half Marathon and the Wanderlust festival and also edited product education content.

LULULEMON
COPYWRITER, GLOBAL MEN'S/MEN'S PRODUCT
APRIL 2014 – PRESENT
Working on lululemon's men's business turned me into a technical gear nerd.  I also invented a muse and in-depth narrative for our men's customization area, The Joinery. I initiated working sessions with my design and merchant partners and together, we created a pants and shorts fit architecture that appears on all men's hang tags. My favourite moment was writing and co-directing Stop Shame Shopping, a funny video that garnered 70K natural views.

FREELANCE WRITER
MAY 2005 – PRESENT
My feature career has spanned spending the day interviewing actress Olivia Wilde to interviewing marine biologists on fish parasites. I was lucky to be an early contributor to Daily Candy (national and Atlanta editions) and Sweet Spot in Canada—both provided wonderful training for learning to write in various brand voices. 

BREAKFAST TELEVISION VANCOUVER
NEWS PRODUCER/WRITER
APRIL 2013 – AUGUST 2014
As a live news producer I took five newscasts to air hourly for a morning television show. I was particularly effective at producing breaking news and was known for cultivating excellent relationships with sources.

CITY TV VANCOUVER
NEWS ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
AUGUST 2008 – APRIL 2013
As manager of taped news content for Breakfast Television, I chose which stories we would cover and carefully selected interviews and footage to tell compelling stories while managing of a team of talented reporters and camera people.  My responsibilities as a breaking news producer required quick decisive action: I was the sole decision-maker in allocating limited news gathering resources. One accomplishment I am most proud of in this role is changing policy around how our show presented victims of violent crime, to create an viewer experience—and ultimately a brand—that felt appropriate to our just-woke-up audience

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
BA 1999
Major: Sociology
Minor: Creative Writing (Poetry)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DIPLOMA OF TECHNOLOGY 2015
Broadcast Journalism

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
CERTIFICATE IN PROFESSIONAL EDITING
Currently Enrolled

Tools
 

Microsoft Office and Excel, Wordpress, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, Google AdWords, PPC ad creation, SEO, Facebook Ads, SquareSpace, Carbonmade, DSLR photography, newsroom software (Inews, Burli, Newstar, EPNS), technical writing, corporate email writing, blog writing, style guide creation, brand voice creation, technical and narrative script writing