Professional Competencies

I have nearly 25 years of professional communications experience spanning numerous oral and written channels.  

A summary of some of my most recent examples of work can be found on my Portfolio page.

News:  In the past two and a half decades, I have served as a radio news and traffic reporter and anchor for some of the top-rated radio stations in Chicago, contributor nationally for Fox News Radio and Televison, MetroSource News, Associated Press, and thecentersquare.com.

Advertising:  I used radio, digital, print, television, social media, and direct mail advertising to help hundreds of clients achieve marketing success.  From writing copy to developing rewarding campaigns that addressed the needs of my clients, I was able to deliver strong results because of my ability to clearly articulate the benefit of my client's messages to a targeted audience.

Government / Public relations:  My most rewarding work has come while working with local government during times of critical outreach needs.  During 2020, I developed and coordinated the City of North Chicago's Census 2020 and COVID outreach and bilingual communications from the city to residents.  I am also trained as a FEMA/IEMA Public Information Officer.

In early 2022, I assisted the Village of Antioch Police Department with Public Information Officer duties for the department during a high-profile missing person investigation.  I handled media relations, updates to the village board, updates to residents, local, regional, and national media, and coordinated press conferences.  Ultimately, it was the media exposure that connected the investigation to the discovery of the missing person, bringing closure to the investigation for the police department, and the missing person's family.  The media coordination required strategy, versatility, and coordination with multiple agencies.  

Our police chief recognized my communications efforts in this letter to our village board - February 2022 letter to the Antioch Village Board.

In 2020, I led the City of North Chicago's Census outreach efforts.  Census efforts in North Chicago faced several obstacles, including a community demographic that traditionally has a distrust of government, and the unanticipated outbreak of COVID.

This role required strategic planning, working with diverse multicultural groups, organizations, and other stakeholder groups, including the local school district and library.  The buy-in from the diverse community groups was critical to our success.

I worked closely with other groups to develop an outreach strategy that had to be flexible enough to change quickly during the unanticipated developments during the initial months of the COVID pandemic. 

North Chicago Census Day 

My Census work in North Chicago also relied upon the competency of working collaboratively to bring diverse groups together to achieve a common goal, however for this competency, I would like to highlight a project from your graduate studies at Northern Illinois University.

In my PSPA 600: Introduction to Public Service course, we were assigned to make an argument for or against the defunding of our community's police department.  The next step of the assignment was to take an opposite stance on the "defund the police" issue from our original view and work in a small group to create a research paper and presentation making an argument.  Our group had to work together to develop an argument and locate research and facts to support our position. It was a great exercise in working collaboratively to find common ground and consensus on issues.