1. How long have you been working with TRM?
I’ve been on board since 2011, as a writer, editor, and subject matter expert.
2. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’ve always been a bundle of contradictions. On my mother’s side, I am the first to go to college. On my father’s side, I am thus far the underachiever as my half-brother and cousins have doctorates. I love challenges; if life becomes stagnant, I’m sure to mix things up. I’ve moved two dozen times throughout the southeast, yet live right where I was born. Now in my 40s, I am proud to be the “dependable” one, the person called upon in a crisis. I’ve been a grandmother for more than a decade, yet have a loving grandmother myself. These are sacred times for me.
3. What experience and expertise do you bring to the TRM team?
True to my nature, I spent the first half of my nursing career in agency and private duty nursing. That landed me at hospitals and nursing homes that couldn’t seem to retain staff. Rather than let that scare me, I prioritized the needs of the patients and nursing assistants for stability and tried to provide that. I found myself in rural Appalachian communities one month and working in a major university hospital’s CCU the next. I’ve worked in drug treatment centers, as house supervisor at a children’s psychiatric hospital, as private duty nurse to ventilator patients, as a newborn and maternity nurse in rural hospitals, as coordinator of clinical trials for a large cardiology practice, and more additional titles than I can recall. Given a preference, I worked with heart patients the first half of my career, and psychiatric patients since then.
4. What are some of your most notable accomplishments?
I graduated from a top-notch LPN school with the highest grade point average in the history of the school, and graduated summa cum laude with my BSN. The accomplishments that mean the most haven’t been loud, they’ve been the patients who pulled through their crises or the teen who recognized me in the grocery store years after I cared for him post-suicide attempt and told me how kind I’d been. Nursing is a fairly unique blend of knowledge and compassion and translating that to my work with TRM has been a pleasure.
5. What is the best thing you like about working with TRM?
I like knowing that I’m helping the future of nursing. As a huge book nerd, it means a lot to me to be working with major clients like Pearson and Lippincott (yes, I still call them Lippincott).
6. Talk about a funny moment you had working on a project for TRM.
I’m scratching my head on this one. My moments have been more sentimental, exciting, challenging and humbling. I probably cause more humor than I experience with my literal interpretations of things.
7. Talk about a challenging moment you had working on a project for TRM.
I’ve experienced a few of those. They usually involve a new project, in which the client isn’t entirely sure what they need yet. We may have a set of rules and follow them to the letter, only to hear, “No, no, no, do it the opposite way.”
8. Talk about the most memorable moment that you had working with TRM.
The most memorable moment had to be meeting Amy. I’ve long felt a kinship with her that defies common language. Finally meeting someone in person can feel awkward but this wasn’t at all, we just picked up like we had been hanging out together for decades. I credit her strong vision of Project Nightingale, which has transcended boundaries to become a living entity we are each moved to nurture.
9. How has working with TRM benefitted you personally?
Ha! I will read that one literally, and discuss personal benefits rather than career ones, which have been bountiful. I’ve learned principles of teamwork, dedication and mutual respect. I’ve learned that even the toughest projects reach a conclusion and that easy ones can actually be fun. Watching Amy, I’ve learned how to build a stellar team of creative and diverse individuals. Of course, I’ve benefitted financially and been allowed to work remotely from my own office.
10. What are you looking forward to in future aspirations with TRM?
I’m looking forward to Project Nightingale! It makes so many things in life make sense, dating back decades. I’m honored to be the magazine editor as well as one of the content developers. Now I know why I studied magazines from age 13 on, analyzing their feature-article-to-recurring-department-ratios, comparing page counts among magazines, and “rating” each article for interesting content according to the demographic. My childhood obsession with magazines and my 25-30 ongoing subscriptions tell me, yes, I was born for this.