Resume

EMPLOYMENT OBJECTIVES

Administrative Position at Chapman University, Orange, California OR
Freelance or Life-of-Project Writing and Editing of Educational Materials

SKILLS

Organizational Skills

• September, 2011-July 2012 Worked with Director Kate Hawkes to raise funding for, produce, and promote my play Fred and Mary: An Unconventional Romance at Prescott’s historic Elks Opera House (July 6-15, 2012), including getting approval for it as an official part of Yavapai County’s Arizona Centennial Celebration.
• Co-founded, with Charissa Menefee, Tomorrow’s Theatre Tonight (readings of new plays-in-progress, followed by audience feedback) now in its 7^th year. Write press releases, maintain e-mail lists, and with Charissa: organize; arrange locations, select and cast plays, direct readings, and MC discussions. Prescott, Arizona. 2007-2013 and continuing.
• Co-founded, with Barry Barbe, The Gato Quad/Sobre Mesa, a monthly salon at El Gato Azul, Prescott, Arizona. Jan 2012-May 2013 and continuing.
• Arizona Classical Theatre/Arizona Shakespeare Festival, Prescott, Arizona. Board Member and President of the Board, 2003-2006.
• Organize donations of clothing, school supplies, toys, household goods, and food from Prescott area and deliver them to St. Anne’s Catholic Mission in Klagetoh, Arizona, on the Navajo (Diné) Reservation. Generally, we participate in sweats led by a Diné guide and share meals with the native people. From 2009 and continuing.

Editorial/Writing

Over 25 years professional writing and editing; content and editorial research; engage with editorial and design teams in product conceptualization; application of state, Common Core, and other national standards to product development; prototype development and spec-writing; literature searches; writing, editing, review and proofreading of content and style per program guidelines; supervise independent contractors. Expertise and experience in converting educational theory into creative instructional materials and writing for English Language Learners and other struggling readers.

TOOLS

Mac OS-X (Snow Leopard 10.6.8), Mac Word 2008 (Version 10.3.6)
Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 10.1.7
PC/Windows platform using Microsoft’s 2007 Professional Office Suite.
FAX, Scanner, color, and black/white printers.

2003—Present

Executive Editor/Senior Writer—edit/write, Prescott, AZ. Gr. 3–12 educational materials for development houses on projects for major educational publishers—including National Geographic Learning/Hampton-Brown, Scholastic, Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin, McDougal-Littel, Scott Foresman, Zaner-Bloser, Prentice Hall, Oxford University Press, CTB-McGraw-Hill, Thomson Heinle, and Ginn & Co., including writing and editing SE selections and apparatus pages, supplementary readers, teachers’ guides for novels, tests, and teacher support materials in reading, language arts, social studies, and science—literature, comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, writing, spelling, library and study skills, environmental awareness.

1999—2003

Senior Editor—National Geographic Learning/Hampton-Brown, Carmel, CA. Part of the team that developed HB’s two ESL Language Arts programs: Avenues for Grades K-5, and High Point for Middle Schools. Beyond being involved in all areas of design and development, responsibilities included choosing, editing, and writing specs for selections and activities in Student Editions (SEs), Teachers’ Editions (TEs), and ancillary materials; guiding writers as they developed activities; verifying that in-house, scope and sequence, and state standards were met; rewriting, editing, and proofreading final manuscripts; designing and writing SE pages; in-house consultant on grammar, literary terms, and educational theory.

Recent Projects

Multimedia language arts lessons (Grade 8) for a nationally recognized publisher/TV producer, concentrating on critical thinking and the national CCSS standards; Updates to meet CCSS standards in grammar and reading skills for existing middle school and high school language arts programs; Writing and editing of student and TE components for NGL/HB (Reach, Gr 4–5) and (Reach for Reading, Gr 4–5). Two SE selections for NGL/HB (Reach, Gr 2–3). Writing and editing of online passages and activities for Sylvan Learning (Gr 3–6); Writing novel guides and BLMs for Scholastic Literature Circles (Gr 6–8); correlations and development of language arts scope and sequence for Bookette Software Company. Environmental teacher’s guide for Pittsburgh’s Steel Valley Trail Council; Grade 4 outdoor education puppet show for The Highland Center, Prescott, Arizona.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Church Secretary—Foothills Congregational Church (UCC), Los Altos, California, 1997-1999. Served under the Reverends Jim Manley, Diane Phillips, Henry Hayden, and Ray Welles during a time of transition.

English Teacher—Rotheram High School, County Borough of Luton, Bedfordshire, England; Portola Middle School, Orange, CA.

Writing/Editing—Award-winning playwright: five full-length and twelve short plays. Two dozen productions, scores of staged readings by professional theater groups. Recent Full Productions include—Fred and Mary: An Unconventional Romance, part of the 2012 Arizona Centennial Celebration at Prescott’s Historic Elks Opera House; Medea’s Ghost at Theatre Artists Studio, Scottsdale, Arizona; Please Knock if Amritsar Not Requid, as a part of The@trics thrifTheatre New Plays Festival; Holly at the Phoenix Fringe Festival, and The Face in the Mirror as a part of Prescott Center for the Arts “Dirty Laundry Festival of New Plays.”

Poetry, short stories, organizational newsletters, newspaper, and magazine articles. Unpublished Y/A novel. A bimonthly newspaper column for children on conflict resolution, peacemaking, and the environment which ran in Orange County, California’s Peace Conversion Times for 12 years. Currently a resident playwright at Theatre Artists Studio, Scottsdale.

M.A., Education. Chapman University, Orange, CA.
B.A., English. Minor: Communications. Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA.
Additional course work at Arizona State University; University of California, Irvine, California; and Yavapai College, Prescott, Arizona.
Past member of South Coast Repertory’s Professional Conservatory.