How Did I Get Here?

Enter Curiosity.

A lot of that talking was driven by curiosity. I ask a lot of questions. I want to know how things work. I have an insatiable drive to solve problems. And if I can’t solve them, I research and keep asking more questions.

When I was working on my Master’s degree in 2004 and would encounter a problem, my now-husband would tell me “you’ll get it in 12 minutes or 12 hours”. And … he was right.

From curiosity came Critical Thinking. Not only do I love to know how it works, but I want to know why, and can it be done differently, can it be approached differently? What is the perspective? Can we make it better? Can we fix it? What does this mean? What is the symbology here? What is the cultural influence here? There are a ton of questions a Critical Thinker asks.

Then Meet Creative.

I come from a long line of creative people – artists, crafters, musicians, and creative thinkers. I first followed the path of science – diving deep into microbiology from the age of 8. After a “failed” stint in high school chemistry (I made a C for the first time!) – I then poured myself into my musical passion – clarinet and bass clarinet. But I eventually burned out there, and decided to play music on the radio… and what a cool way to now explore and satisfy my un-ending need to talk.

I had a few years in radio and TV, both on-air and in production, and it’s there that I was led to the internet in 1999.

I bought a book about HTML and taught myself how to make websites. This opened the doors to creativity! No program director or creative director telling you what to say and how, what advertisers like and don’t like – it was pure, unbridled communication freedom – as long as you could write the code to put the words and pictures on the page.

Web design was the perfect place for me to combine my curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and love of problem solving into a way to satisfy that urge to talk and express. Not only was it just words on a page, but now I had the ability to use colors, layout, images, interactive elements, and text to convey meaning, build engagement, and communicate.

Being curious about this new emergent media, and deeply wanting to explore how the Internet was going to change lives, I sought out a graduate program that would explore not only web design, coding, computer science, and art, but most importantly, critical thinking. I graduated with a Masters of Art in Digital Media Studies from the University of Denver in 2005.

This need to creatively solve problems and communicate led me through a successful path in New Media. In my 20-year career, I have become a seasoned, award-winning professional that knows the ins-and-outs of websites, web tech infrastructure, content management systems, HTML/CSS coding, graphic design and video production software, online ads, email campaigns, Google Analytics, social media, and communication strategy.

The Data Revolution Will Be Counted

Throughout this birth of the internet and my career – data has been the driving force and most unique aspect of this new communication medium. Quite different from the shotgun approach of traditional radio and TV communication and marketing, the data behind digital communication can be measured, harnessed, and assessed to tell the real story of how communication messaging and strategy are performing and how it can be improved. My experience with data in this marketing and communications context has been in this space – measure site and page engagement, online ad performance, email open rates, and page load speeds, and then use that data to drive decisions about page design, content, site search engine optimization, site/page engagement, email engagement, and timelines.

Along this career path, I have continued to ask questions about the larger picture of how data affects end-user experience, how data flows from one application to another, and how we can keep data secure, harness the stories it has to tell, and how we can eventually use the data to affect change in our offline and online worlds.

So, after 20 years of building out the message on the front end, I’m ready to go behind the curtain and find the story within the data. And, I am confident that my 30 years in Communications will be of my best assets in how to tell the story of Data.