I’m a creative strategist, storyteller, entrepreneur, photographer, and curious human with a big appetite for life.

I’m interested in the intersection of art, culture, food, technology, and joy — and in making things that bring people a little more of it.

For most of my career, I worked in communications and strategy, helping companies, executives, and organizations figure out what they wanted to say, how they wanted to show up, and how to make people care.

These days, I’m building something a little more personal.

✨ What I’m up to

I’m the co-founder of Joy Code, a creative lab exploring the intersection of art, code, and joy. We’re starting with Ilsee, a modern take on the darkroom that brings the magic of physical photography into the digital age.

I’m also evolving Yumday, the food and storytelling project I started several years ago, into something new. Food has always been one of my favorite ways to explore culture, creativity, connection, and everyday delight.

And I’m making more room for photography, writing, creative experiments, and the occasional wonderfully weird idea that I simply have to try.

I don’t really believe these things need to be separate.

Strategy informs creativity. Food tells stories. Technology can be playful. Photography makes me pay attention. And some of the best ideas happen when you let seemingly unrelated things collide.

💼 A little more about the work

Before giving myself permission to build a more creative life, I spent nearly two decades working in communications and strategy.

I’ve worked across entertainment, technology, global corporations, startups, and mission-driven organizations, helping shape executive voices, investor stories, internal cultures, corporate narratives, major presentations, launches, and organizational change.

That experience still comes with me.

I like making complicated things clearer. I like finding the story hiding inside a pile of information. I like figuring out what matters, what doesn’t, and how to make an idea land.

So while I’m no longer interested in being defined by a corporate job title, strategy is still part of my creative toolkit.

And I’m always open to the right project, collaboration, or interesting problem to solve.

📷 Making things & paying attention

Photography has become an increasingly important part of how I see the world.

I love wandering with a camera, noticing small details, chasing good light, documenting places, and making images simply because something caught my eye.

I’m especially drawn to food, travel, architecture, culture, and the little moments that make a place feel like itself.

I’m also a lifelong collector of curiosities: books, movies, restaurants, ideas, beautiful objects, strange facts, excellent snacks, and stories worth telling.

I love traveling somewhere new, finding a great meal, going to the movies, spending too long in a museum, listening to music, making things with my hands, and following a question just to see where it leads.

Basically, curiosity is one of my favorite hobbies.

🍝 The food part

Food has been a throughline in my life for as long as I can remember.

I started Yumday as a way to celebrate the people, stories, and delicious things behind food. It grew into a snack company, a retail shop, a media platform, and eventually returned to its personal roots: a way for me to explore how food creates connection and joy.

I’m still endlessly curious about what people eat, why they eat it, where it comes from, and the stories that gather around a table.

If you put me in a new city, I’ve probably already researched where we’re going to eat.

❤️ Life outside the work

I live in Wilmington, North Carolina, with my husband, Brandon, and our dogs, Marty and Rosie.

Brandon is a developer and photographer, which means our house contains an unreasonable number of cameras, computers, lenses, and other things that apparently bring us joy.

We’re big believers in getting outside, making things, cooking dinner, taking the dogs on adventures, and occasionally saying yes to something simply because it sounds fun.

I’ve logged some hours toward a private pilot’s license, written a Master’s thesis about early Gothic literature, worked as a background actor, appeared on reality television, and spent enough time watching movies to confidently call myself a cinephile.

I still reread The Little Prince every few years, mostly because it reminds me that staying curious and kind is a pretty good way to move through the world.

🌱 The things I care about

I’ve been lucky to spend much of my life working alongside people who care deeply about their communities.

I’ve served on nonprofit boards, supported food-access organizations, volunteered with animal rescue, and worked with organizations using storytelling and film to create social change.

Those experiences have shaped how I think about work, creativity, and success.

I’m interested in building things that are useful, beautiful, meaningful, or just plain delightful.

Ideally, sometimes all four.

🏡 About this little corner of the internet

This website is my digital home.

It’s where I write, make things, share photographs, document what I’m learning, talk about food and culture, and occasionally disappear down an extremely specific rabbit hole.

Think of it as a creative diary with snacks.

There are stories here from many different chapters of my life, and that’s intentional. I’m not particularly interested in pretending people are one thing forever.

We’re allowed to evolve.

So this is a record of where my curiosity takes me next.

Thanks for being here. ❤️