Maumelle, Arkansas, United States
I grew up and was educated in New York City with a degree in French Literature and music prior to moving to Arkansas. Before landing a job as a reporter/photgrapher and then editor of an Arkansas county newspaper, I was a waitress at a Clarksville truck stop and have since been tipping wait staff really well. During David Pryor's terms as governor, I was hired by Senator Max Howell as the Legislative Information Officer for the Senate, writing speeches, researching newly enacted laws, educating the public about new laws and the process of introducing and passing new legislation, and acting as liaison with the Capitol Press Corps. During then-governor Bill Clinton's administration, I was the Media Specialist for the Governor's Office of Voluntary Citizen Participation. I later became Assistant Director of the Arkansas Endowment for the Humanities, assisting individuals and groups with the AEH grant process and helping them develop their projects. I was a Senior Claims Manager for 15 years at a Little Rock personal injury law firm, negotiating settlements with insurance companies for our clients. For the past five years, I have turned my attention to freelance writing. I write just about anything for the Internet: website content, blogs, online newsletters, news articles, feature articles, press releases, copywriting, and more. Subject areas include but are not limited to domestic and international travel, personal injury law, criminal law, elder abuse, organic gardening, culinary herbs, retail businesses, wedding planning, cooking, marketing and social media. In 2016 I published a children's picture book entitled, "Bobby the Blue-Footed Booby Gets Bullied," which focuses in a fun way on children being bullied at school, the specialness of each individual child, and a section on animals (some endangered) in the Galapagos Islands. I volunteered for close to 10 years at the Little Rock Zoo as a docent, handling our ambassador animals and teaching the public about species survival, conservation, the changing mission of zoos, and animals' extraordinary adaptations.
Online and offline writing, editing, and proofreading on a variety of topics. Currently writing articles for a personal injury attorney and managing his social media platforms. Recently completed or am working on website content writing on dietary supplements, extreme adventure sports, exotic hunting, wedding planning, full-service NYC day spa, elder abuse, affiliate marketing, industrial products, international recipes and expatriate tax law. Online newsletters, press releases, creative writing, screenwriting, and articles on examiner.com are also part of my publishing experience.
I have written and self-published a 40-page children’s picture book for ages 4-8 on bullying entitled, “Bobby the Blue-Footed Booby Gets Bullied”. It takes place in the Galápagos Islands. Although the main message is about bullying and what children should do about it, it also touches on acceptance, goodness, kindness, animal conservation and even a bit of zoology. I have tried to characterize the personality of the book’s animals in a way that highlights some of their innate adaptations. For more information on my interests in bullying and conservation and/or how to order the book, please go to: https://www.facebook.com/bulliedbooby.
I was a communications and business consultant for a new Little Rock law office, Beacon Legal Group, a legal firm focused on Internet, personal injury and immigration law, as well as mass torts and civil litigation. My responsibilities at the law firm consisted of setting up the business end, organizing tasks and responsibilities, and setting up and maintaining online and offline marketing strategies.
When working full-time, I was involved with all phases of the law firm related to settlement of personal injury claims inclusive of meeting with the clients, following their medical progress, assessing the value of their claims through reviews of their medical records and other losses sustained, preparation and writing of a demand letter to the insurance companies, and negotiating settlements with the insurance companies in an attempt to obtain a fair settlement for the clients without having to go to court. Other responsibilities include providing assistance to the injured clients who all too often do not have medical insurance and, because of their injuries, are in jeopardy of losing their jobs, their businesses and/or their homes; responsible for setting up trust funds for minor clients, many of whom are on Medicaid and who would otherwise lose their benefits because of the amount of their settlements; assist with maintaining and updating medical referrals for clients without health insurance in an attempt to pair them with medical personnel who will accept liens in lieu of immediate payment; negotiate reduction of medical bills and insurance reimbursements at settlement when there are insufficient monies to cover clients' losses; attend weekly meetings of attorneys and lead staff for the purposes of staying abreast of the latest laws and insurance practices impacting the business; introduced an employee benefits plan to attract qualified staff; instituted new position for training of all support staff to limit errors and make uniform the computer input of case data; lobbied for work-at-home programs through remote desktop program as well as flexible employment policies to help with work-life balance; responsible for all Hispanic clients who do not speak English. I was also actively involved in supervising two multi-district lawsuits involving approximately 200 clients.
Hired primarily to manage 22 Pay Per Click (PPC) accounts. Duties included creating online PPC advertising campaigns for clients on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft AdWords advertising programs. Duties also included copywriting, daily online management of campaigns, management of clients' online budgets, creation of monthly Excel reports showing advertising progress, monthly meetings with clients, online press releases, technical documents for maintaining PPC campaigns and how to stay current with constant search engine marketing technical changes and marketing trends. Also assisted with proofreading, writing and editing copy for client web sites.