I'm a twenty-something army brat living in Austin, TX.

I consider myself to be a "well-rounded" individual with a wide range of interests, including:

• design (particularly web and graphic design, but I appreciate all forms of design)
• new media and technology
• baking
• sewing and crafting
• fashion
• live music
• cuteoverload.com
• snuggie-lounging

I also enjoy volunteering my time with charitable organizations. I devote most of my time to animal rescue organizations, such as Austin Pets Alive!, but I have also recently volunteered with the Capital Area Food Bank and the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure.

My interest in web and graphic design started at a very young age. My father has always been a technophile, and my older cousin, who lived with my family when I was a child, was a fashion designer and artist. These were the two people I looked up to the most, so naturally I became interested in everything they did.

Once my father retired from the military, he found a job that settled our constantly-moving family in Houston, TX when I was about 11 years old. We moved at the beginning of the summer, so I had not started school yet, and therefore had very few friends. I had to find a way to pass the time, and I have always enjoyed learning, so I decided to teach myself how to build websites and use Adobe Photoshop. From that point on, I was hooked. Most summers, I would spend days on the computer without stopping to sleep or eat any real food (I practically lived off of Chex Mix and water), because I was so determined to learn all that I could, and once I started a project, I couldn't stop until I was done (yep, I was super cool, obviously)!

This obsession has stuck with me ever since, so I decided to study Creative and Interactive Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin. At UT I learned how to develop great designs from sound ideas, why good designs are good designs, the science behind typography, as well as how to really harness the power of the Internet as an efficient marketing tool in a time when marketing your brand online usually meant an annoying pop-up window to most. I began to work with the founders of the Austin Interative Marketing Association as the first student representative of the Austin IMA, as well as a founding member of the MAR-COM team. My work with the Austin IMA helped me land a job with Apogee Search, one of the largest search marketing firms in the Southwest. While at Apogee, I learned a great deal about search engine optimization, paid search campaign management, display advertising, social media, online video advertising, online reputation management, conversion optimization, and pretty much anyting else you can think of related to advertising online.

I currently spend my days as a freelance web designer, obsessed with social media, new technologies, and cute animals.