When I was a kid my sister and I spent a lot of time at the television station where my father worked.  Sometimes we would help out with live studio productions.  One fateful day, a camera operator did not show up and I was asked to run one of the studio pedestal cameras.  I was afraid, nervous and excited but it introduced me to camera work.  I spent my summers working as a camera operator and filling in when they needed a Master Control operator. 

 

It was a natural choice to select Media Communications for a major in college.  While driving home from film school with a colleague of mine, we came up with an idea for an episodic television program to help pass the time on the 25+ hour road trip.  It was a good idea but neither one of us thought anything would come of it since we were fresh out of film school and didn't really know what we were doing.  Once back in Ohio, we heard of an opportunity to submit a pilot to a television network and thought we'd try for it.  We wrote out the plan, shot a pilot and much to our surprise, got signed to a television network boasting a potential audience of 500 Million viewers worldwide.  The program ran for ten seasons, 120 episodes and covered topics relevant to high school and college age students.   

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During that time I met several filmmakers in Cleveland.  Through those connections, I was hired to work on a couple of movie sets including Bartelby (Crispin Glover), The Wedding Planner (Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lopez), and A Better Way To Die (Lou Diamond Phillips, Joey Pantoliano).  I moved to California with the intention of pursuing a career in film but when I got there all my connections ran dry.  I felt the impact of not having regular work and decided it would be best if I could find a full time job with benefits.  I accepted a job with Premiere Radio Networks in the Traffic Department generating commercial logs for various national radio programs such as Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlesinger, Fox Sports Radio and dozens more. 

 

After several years and some moving about it became clear that it was time to return permanently to Ohio.  My grandparents were both having health issues and I wanted to be close to them.  At the same time, my  mother was developing her own curriculum to use in an After School program focused on teaching video production to elementary and junior high kids.  It was incredibly difficult work to get inner city kids with disciplinary problems to sit down and nearly impossible to get them to be quiet.  But once I put a camera in their hands, their eyes lit up, their curiosity took over and they were engaged.  For a few years we coordinated more than 30 classes in a dozen school each semester.  However, the program was dependent on government funding.  Political changes reduced funding and the video production classes were discontinued.  Programs such as math and science tutoring were favored over career-building classes. 

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In 2012, I accepted a job at WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio.  It was a basic job to get my foot in the door.  After a year I was promoted to work in commercial production.  Unlike many production companies, the job required that I perform all the tasks necessary to produce commercials - ideation, writing, coordinating shoots, motion graphics and editing.  Projects I worked on include commercials and long form videos for The Reid Health Network, Dayton Children's Hospital, Optimus Prosthetics and more. 

 

After a few years, I was given an opportunity to shift into management.  This required me to expand my knowledge base to include digital, print and social media creative.  As Creative Advertising Manager, I've led an award-winning team of graphic designers, producers and sound engineers in making creative advertising campaigns for radio, television, print, digital and social media.  

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