Fresh out of college and looking for the perfect job to combine my advertising degree with my passion to create, I got a job designing phone book ads. Yeah, remember phone books? I learned that it was possible to design efficiently and expertly in a fast-paced environment.

After the sudden, but inevitable, fall of the phone book industry, I did the freelance thing for a while, but emerged a year later, working for a small (only four employees) marketing and design firm. I worked on a variety of print, web and e-mail projects. I learned the responsibility of working in small groups.

After several years on the agency side, I decided it was time to take my leadership skills back to a large company. As Manager of Digital Media Design, I lead by example on a variety of web and e-mail projects while taking on the occasional special assignment. I learned that you should always be willing to learn new things and develop your skills.