Biography for ASBPE Young Leader Scholarship

This is the bio I submitted as part of my application for a Young Leader Scholarship awarded by ASBPE. I was awarded the scholarship in 2024 along with two other B2B editors.

I've had an unconventional trajectory into B2B media.

Growing up in a household toeing the poverty line, the primary factors I weighed when considering careers were pay and stability. I settled on software engineering when I was in high school, going so far as to teach myself how to program and do some freelance development work. After graduating high school, I enrolled in a community college to pursue an AAS in web/computer programming. While I enjoyed programming, it wasn't my passion—writing was, and it always had been. But I set writing on the backburner.

I put myself through college working for a small company that sold laboratory equipment. As is common in small businesses, I wore a lot of hats, doing everything from marketing to software development. I had the freedom to work in virtually any domain I wanted—and yet, I always found myself reeling back toward writing roles.

Halfway through my degree, when I was twenty years old, my father died quite suddenly. This experience kickstarted a reevaluation of my life, and I came to a conclusion:

Every person's time is limited. Is that not reason enough to pursue that which you most want to do? Writing was the passion my dad and I shared; I wanted to make him proud and finally commit to pursuing it professionally, in whatever capacity I could.

To make good on this promise to myself, I kickstarted the company's content marketing campaign. Over the next year, I produced dozens of articles, taught myself how to interview subject matter experts, and filmed videos, all aimed to educate our customers about their industry. At that point, I was sold: I knew wanted to be a professional writer and editor in some capacity.

So I finished my college coursework, earning the degree in computer programming that I had coveted since I was thirteen years old.

And then I promptly ignored it, dedicating my career to writing articles instead of code.

My experience as a content marketer led to freelancing for Lab Manager magazine, which in turn led to a job offer for Associate Editor. Now that I'm firmly rooted in B2B media, I'm able to write and edit as much as I like, as well as use my programming expertise to solve problems afflicting the editorial team.

I am creatively fulfilled by my job, and I could not be happier about making the leap into B2B media.

In the next five to ten years, I'd like to deviate from a purely editorial role to work in a hybrid editorial/operations capacity—perhaps with a title like Editorial Solutions Architect—wherein I contribute to editorial processes by generating new avenues for content and solving problems that journalists face with innovative tech, a deep familiarity of our audience, and a strategic approach to generating content. 

And, of course, I'll always be writing.