Projects and Talks

Selected Conferences, Presentations and Talks

Panelist @ SXSW 2011: Why Visualizing Government Data Makes Taxpayers Happy

2010 presented on social media and marketing communications to the National Forum for Black Public Administrators in Austin, TX

SXSW 2010 Interactive conference

2009 National Conference of State Legislators Social Media Boot Camp in Austin, TX

Presented a case study alongside Jeremiah Akin on the value of geolocation services and state government at the 2009 Texas GIS Forum at the University of Texas J.J. Pickle Center in Austin. Presentation [pdf]

2008 National Association of Government Communicators Blue Pencil and Gold Screen Awards in Albuquerque, NM, to accept the award of Best External Newsletter on behalf of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

2008 Poynter Institute Writers’ Workshop for writers and editors in Fort Lauderdale

2006 STAMATS seminar for integrated marketing strategies in Philadelphia, PA

Major Initiatives

Apple iTunes U at Texas Tech University

In 2007 I coordinated the contract and launch of the Apple iTunes U agreement at Texas Tech University, one of the first of its kind, and the first major social media initiative at that institution. Read more.

Tram Diaries

In 2005 I found myself writing extensively on the Tram Diaries. While working for Texas Tech University’s Office of Communications and Marketing, I successfully pitched the story to both NPR and USA Today.

This article, which I wrote that year, is one of my all-time favorites:

As a surgeon, Dang Thuy Tram knew that some wounds heal slowly, and that some never heal at all. Thirty-five years after her death, The Texas Tech Vietnam Center is helping heal her family’s wounds, and mend the broken hearts of two nations saddened by war.

See my profile at Texas Tech University.