I have been an invited presenter at three Journalism Education Association Annual Conventions. I have published journal articles, co-authored a text, and conducted professional development seminars on science journalism. My professional background also includes newspaper and magazine reporting, and public information management. Along with teaching, I write monthly magazine and newspaper features in which I frequently focus on ecotourism. A few of my favorite things are my family, the Sonoran Desert, New Mexican luminarias and green chile salsa.
Writers are storytellers.
For those of us who have come to love the desert, the tenacious Sonoran Desert is a master storyteller. The desert tells its own stories of its rich cultural history as it fights for survival in the environmentally hostile setting of encroaching development. The power of language, both spoken and written, strengthens the ability of people to hold on just as tenaciously to what is important to them as they survive in continually changing, and sometimes economically hostile, settings. As a journalist, I tell the story, and as a teacher, I teach students to effectively tell the story, helping to equip them with the necessary spoken and written language skills to accomplish their goals.