I have always been one of those creative, type-A, perfectionist, up-at-all-hours self-proclaimed nerds who sees life as something between a term paper and an exciting musical adventure. As a child, I alphabetized my book collection, fashioned doll clothes out of tissue and tape, recorded radio shows with my best friend on my purple boom box and transformed my cardboard playhouse into a time machine (specifically a TARDIS for all you Doctor Who fans). During my enigmatic teen years, I spent my free time and summers writing poetry, choreographing routines for my dance trio Tappers in Street Clothes and managing a homemade doll business (this is no joke—I sold over 50 dolls!).

By the time I was in college I realized my dream of becoming a famous dancer was probably not going to happen, so, of course, I set my sights on television! Armed with two TV internships, two years of freelance production work, and this great black suit with large mirrored buttons, I landed the job of dreams at The Oprah Winfrey Show.  I settled into a nice place on the Audience Team and grew with it till the end of the show. There I booked and managed massive audiences in the studio and other locations, maintaining that 5-star customer service protocol. I wrote on-air and online plugs to attract and book specific audiences. And then I really started utilizing all that crazy creative energy and my nerdy acuity for data collection to drive the creation of an online audience registration tool. I basically became the liaison between the Audience Team and the online department of brilliant people who designed and built the system. I couldn’t write a line of code but I could communicate exactly what we needed in logical terms and from the experience I learned so much.