My Work Story, So Far

I never figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Eventually, my love for words landed me in journalism.

At my first job, I wrote stories about students and faculty at Davidson College. A couple of years after that, the most intense and fun experience of my life — working at The Daily Tar Heel — prepared me for spells at the Palm Beach Post and the Rocky Mountain News. In 2005, I accepted a job as a metro copy editor at the Chicago Tribune and went on my first date with my future husband the same week. While at the Trib, I copy-edited countless local stories, got two bylines and once saw Barack Obama in the hallway.

I returned to the Rocky in 2008 and made a "good catch" on my final shift as an editor, serving as the last set of eyes on the last column to go into the last edition of the 150-year-old paper—Colorado’s longest continuously running business at the time the presses stopped. Shortly after the Rocky closed, I joined the press team for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, leaving after three years to help my husband launch his own communications business and hang out with my kid. 

My latest tour in the land of the working stiff began at the end of 2013 and improbably has lasted longer than all my journalism gigs combined. These days, at the City and County of Denver, I help planners engage the public about planning policy and implementation, which is one part being a good communicator, one part being an unforgiving taskmaster, one part being everyone's therapist. Oddly enough, my liberal arts degree was perfect preparation for this.

Reading other people’s words is no longer my job and hasn’t been for quite some time. Still, I miss it. Words, Searched is about scratching that itch. It’s about books, reading, words and the search (lifelong, apparently) for what I want to do.

Other Things to Know About Me

I am Colombian-American and fluent in Spanish.

I have a bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in ethnic studies from Davidson College and a master's degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

I serve as personal assistant to two precocious young daughters and one mildly neurotic Pyrenees-Labrador.

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A night owl with a day job.