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Communications & Content Strategist

I’m a communications and content strategist, editor and writer with over 15 years of hands-on experience developing creative content to help innovative brands tell their stories, grow audiences and build reputations.

I currently focus on science communication as the Communications Director for the Innovative Genomics Institute. I previously managed research communications for the University of California Office of the President, focusing heavily on sustainability and innovation.

In the travel space, I’ve worked in-house at Airbnb and Lonely Planet, and a travel startup that went *poof*, as they sometimes do. I occasionally teach workshops and give talks on travel writing and content strategy.

I’ve also consulted with brands both large and small in technology, biotech, fintech, food, lifestyle, entertainment, and a variety other industries. Specialties include sustainability and research communications, positioning brands and executives as thought leaders, and developing mutually beneficial content partnerships.

Professional Writer

Beyond my work for brands, my writing has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Vox, Lonely Planet, Washington Post, CNN, Discovery, USA Today, BBC Travel, Thrillist, and more, as well as in several Lonely Planet books. See my most recent publications on Contently.

Scientist & Science Communicator

Before all of the above, I was a researcher studying plant genomics and fern evolution. How does one jump from sequencing fern DNA to being a content strategist for consumer brands? It helped that I have always been a writer – after that it just took four easy steps:

• Step 1: Travel abroad to a bunch of obscure destinations looking for rare plants.
• Step 2: Realize after several years that you’re more interested in the destination than the lab work.
• Step 3: Finish your Ph.D., move to London, get a job as a journal editor, start a travel blog.
• Step 4: Parlay all of the above into a job at a major travel publisher who happened to like hiring overeducated people with unusual backgrounds.

Well, you can take the boy out of the science, but you can’t take the science out of the boy. I still do some botanical research as time permits – following up on questions left lingering from my earlier work on marattioid ferns and the ferns of California, Oregon and Washington. (I’ll occasionally post science-related articles, including my annual wrap-up of the best plant writing on Medium.)

I love when I get a chance to to combine my scientific background with my editorial experience, so I’m always happy to take on projects with a sciencey angle.

Please feel free to reach out any time on Twitter or LinkedIn. PLEASE: NO TRAVEL PR PITCHES. I do not respond to pitches, and I promise you I’m not interested in writing about Fall foliage just because I did once 10 years ago.