I relate to the media.

I have a proven track record in securing visible stories in leading media outlets.

I was a television news journalist for more than a decade, and that's helped me understand how to pitch stories that reporters want to tell, which aren't necessarily the ones an institution may want to tell. My most successful work has been through careful research and targeted pitching. Sure, sending out a press release is one way to pique a journalist's interest, but not always. I read lots and lots of publications so I know which reporters might be a good match for a particular angle. Here's an example – Santa Barbara is a small market and it's hard to get (good) coverage. I knew we needed an experienced and thorough storyteller to describe just how devastating the mud and debris flow of January 2018 had been for La Casa de Maria, so I made a direct pitch to the reporter I thought had been covering the story consistently and well. She responded to my pitch, spent quite a bit of time with us, reported deeply, and wrote a very effective piece.

More recently, I've gotten to know Cal Maritime's faculty who are experts on, among other things, supply chain, ship's anchors, and tides, all of which has come in handy for pitching their expertise on a few major stories with hits on CNN International, NBC Today, and Popular Mechanics to name a few.

In May of 2022 I was editing a story for our magazine about a fascinating alumna, restricted to a ship off China for months due to Covid lockdown (and the only woman aboard), who started making documentaries about it. I realized it could use even more eyes than our circulation and crafted a pitch to the San Francisco bureau chief of the New York Times. Recognizing that it was a great story, he responded almost immediately and here's the result.