From journalism to marketing

My career has evolved through several disciplines, but the thread connecting them has always been the same: understanding people and finding better ways to connect ideas with audiences.

As a journalist, I learned to approach unfamiliar subjects with curiosity and rigor. I interviewed people from every walk of life, reported on complex issues, and translated information into stories for broad audiences. That experience gave me a strong foundation in research, writing, editorial judgment, and audience psychology.

As digital media and social platforms transformed the way people discover information, I began applying those storytelling skills to marketing. I learned how audiences behave across channels, how products earn attention, and how creative ideas can translate into measurable business results. At Branded/Essor, that evolution took me into product and brand marketing, where I supported more than 50 product launches across three consumer brands and worked across positioning, campaign development, audience strategy, influencer marketing, paid social, and performance analysis.

Today, I bring all of those experiences together: the curiosity of a journalist, the creativity of a storyteller, the analytical mindset of a marketer, and the strategic perspective of a product marketer.

Education has always been part of the journey

My academic background reflects that same intersection of communication, creativity, and curiosity.

I earned my bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Japanese Language from the University at Buffalo, where I developed a strong foundation in writing, literature, critical thinking, and cross-cultural communication.

I then earned my master's degree from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, one of the country's leading communications programs. My graduate work deepened my understanding of journalism, digital media, storytelling, and the evolving relationship between audiences and information.

Education has remained an important part of my professional life as well. Through Summer Springboard, I have designed and taught digital marketing and social media curriculum to high school students at Columbia University, covering digital strategy, audience development, analytics, and AI. Teaching has reinforced one of the principles I bring to marketing: the best ideas are the ones you can explain clearly enough for someone else to understand and believe in.

How I think about marketing

I believe the strongest marketing begins before the creative brief.

It starts with understanding the audience.

Who are they? What do they need? What do they already believe? What problem are we actually solving? What would make them stop, listen, trust us, and ultimately act?

From there, I look for the insight that can unlock the story. I translate that insight into positioning and messaging, build a strategy around the channels and audiences that matter, and then work collaboratively to turn the strategy into creative that people actually want to engage with.

I also believe great marketing requires comfort with ambiguity. The most interesting problems rarely arrive with a perfectly defined brief. I'm comfortable researching the unknown, bringing stakeholders together, experimenting with ideas, using data to learn, and moving from strategy to execution when the path isn't completely clear.

Increasingly, that means incorporating AI into the way I work. I use AI-powered tools to accelerate research, synthesize information, develop ideas, and streamline creative workflows while keeping human judgment at the center. At NYU, this approach helped reduce campaign production time by 40% while enabling me to produce more than 50 targeted multimedia assets.

Beyond the résumé

I'm naturally curious, which probably explains why my interests tend to span a lot of territory.

I love being outdoors and have summited Mount Fuji in Japan and traveled to Alaska's remote Ruth Glacier during a 10-day backpacking trip. I'm working toward my goal of visiting every National Park in the United States. When I'm not hiking, snowboarding, or fly fishing, I enjoy cooking, reading, and playing the drums. My band once even opened for the Goo Goo Dolls.

And yes, I'm still a very enthusiastic Buffalo Bills fan.

Those interests may not have much to do with product marketing on the surface, but they reflect something that does: I'm endlessly curious about people, places, ideas, and the stories behind them. That's ultimately what brought me to journalism, what led me to marketing, and what continues to shape how I work today.

Let's connect

I'm interested in the space where product, technology, creativity, and human behavior intersect—and in building marketing that makes complex ideas feel useful, relevant, and human.

If you're working on something interesting, I'd love to hear about it.