I’ve been telling stories for my entire professional career, starting with my first published article when I was a teenage copy aide at The Washington Post. I’ve learned new skills of writing and reporting at every stage, from interning on Capitol Hill to my first cub-reporter cops beat in Florida – all the way up to daily news reporting in Washington to covering homes for local shelter magazines and creating content for design creatives. I’ve learned the power of words, used just so to convey information and emotion, drama and detail.
I’ve reached the latest stage of my storytelling career as the senior communications writer for Perkins Eastman, a global architecture firm with numerous studios and architectural disciplines – all of them focused on the same goal: Human by Design. The scope of work can be sprawling – waterfront districts from DC’s Wharf to Shanghai’s Huishan North Bund; skyscrapers from New York to Kuwait; and hospitals, university buildings, and hotels across the United States, and around the world. But no matter the project, each design team thinks first about the people who will be using the space — and under which circumstance — before conceiving the space itself, thus creating a uniquely human experience each time.
I’ve become addicted to design ever since I started covering homes for HGTV in the early 2000’s. I eventually started a blog in 2010 to explore design in my hometown. DC by Design is the only local design blog that avoids the typical “how-to” decorating tips and delves exclusively into the talents that shine throughout the DC-Maryland-Virginia region.
Beyond my keyboard, I live in a post-and-beam Deck House in Arlington, Virginia, that we affectionately call The Brady Bunch House. My husband, Jim, is a top design editor at USA Today, and we’ve got two sons—Henry, 19, a freshman at Christopher Newport University, and Chal, 16, a sophomore at Yorktown High School (whose 2013 renovation was designed by Perkins Eastman!).
My favorite gifts of all time have been furniture and art: lipstick-red Victoria Ghost chairs by Philippe Starck add zing to my office, thanks to my dad; a custom chest that my husband commissioned from our friend, woodworker Caleb Woodard greets visitors in our entry hall; and likewise, he asked another friend, artist Mark Giaimo, to do a painting of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (inside joke), which lives in our bedroom. Each of these pieces, like many others in our home, has a story behind it—one of the reasons I love learning about the stories that dwell in every new design endeavor I’m privileged to write about.
Want more details about my work experience? My full resume is on LinkedIn, right here.
