Dorthy ended up in a twister, was knocked upside the head by a window shutter, and ended up in Oz.

Me, the year was 1999. I was a spoken word poet and photography student working at a small ad agency in my hometown of St. Louis, MO, and one day, while assisting photographer  Pete Jones at Studio 612, I landed on a page of the PDN Magazine advertising this place called Miami Ad School. I took that page flip as a sign, so I applied to Miami Ad School, flew down for my interview, and was accepted. And not one house had to be dropped on a witch in the process. 

September 2002, I arrived at the doors of Miami Ad School, after driving from St. Louis, MO to South Beach Miami, FL in a packed '85 Toyota Tercel that had no radio, no air condition, and I, with no mobile phone, and a plan to live in my car until I found a job-- a poet who became a photographer that got this bright idea to be an Art Director. Then, in mid-November of that same year, this handsome guy casually approached me at a poetry set I'd just performed at on South Beach, asked me what I was doing that coming Friday, and if I would open up for Dr. Cornell West. I accepted the offer, and that Friday, I was discovered by an HBO executive. In the winter of 2003, I took some time off from school to be the poet on the Unchained Memories Tour, hosted by HBO. Upon my return from tour, I had an honest talk with one of my teachers at MAS, which resulted in me switching my concentration to Copywriting, for obvious reasons. 

Fast-forward to graduation day, March 2005, here I was free-styling about how I didn't get into the game of advertising to sell folks a car with a song. At that moment, I decided I was going to be a storyteller, and I think I did an awesome job at sticking to that mission. 

When it comes to my work in advertising, my mission is to pull a heart string or few. Provoke people to think, engage, act, and remember. In my career, I've been awarded a Silver 2008 Hugo Award for "History In The Making," Verizon, Cinema/Online spot featuring J. Ivy, and an international honor from TED Ads Worth Spreading in 2011 for "The Clock Is Ticking," The Girl Effect, Nike Foundation. Throughout the years, it's been great to work on brands like, Verizon, McDonald's, Toyota, Olay, Pampers, Allstate, The Portland Jazz Festival, Nike, Nike Foundation, Target, Coca-Cola, The American Indian College Fund, Earthjustice, Barefoot College, and 10,000 Degrees, and those years were made even better by the outstanding talent I got the opportunity to work with. While awards are great, and working on cool clients is always a plus, one of the most rewarding experiences of my advertising career was to serve as Curriculum and Creative Director of The Marcus Graham Project, from 2008-2013. What is all this for if we don't train up the next generation of communication arts leaders and thinkers, right? 

My skill as a poet informs my life and work as a copywriter and creative director. I'm way too small to be splitting myself in half, and I'm thankful that the uniform for both lifestyles are about the same.

Now, let's look at the other side of things because it's not a pivot. 

In August of 2013, tragedy struck my family in the worst way. My youngest brother John, was killed in our hometown of St. Louis, MO. So, the grieving sister I was, and the strategist in me got to work. This led to the creation of Sibling Support Network, an organization dedicated to assisting people who have lost blood-related or fictive kin siblings to a violent crime. Next thing you know, I was in a life surrounded by public health and social services professionals. So, I did what Dorothy did, I "eased on down" the road (yes, I'm switching movies) and hopped, skipped, walked, ran, and then walked really slow down the road with some amazing people by my side. 

2017, I joined InPower Institute in St. Louis, MO as Storytelling Fellow in a cohort of dynamic Black women. This fellowship afforded me the opportunity to launch Black Womxn’s Playwright Workshop, in collaboration with playwright, Mariah Richardson. It was also during this fellowship when I mapped out the idea for what became, “I Remember a Place Name…” a podcast about erased, displaced, and under-threat Black communities and space. The podcast finally saw the light of day in 2021. But, before we get there lets go back to when the world shutdown.

2020 was the deep dive into my work in public health. At the height of the lock down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I joined the Integrated Health Network as a Lead Community Health Worker. With a team of daytime community health workers, we were responsible for assisting people who were considered home-bound. The work was rewarding and trying at the same time. So, when the opportunity came in 2021 to join Translation in New York as a freelance creative director, I welcomed the change with open arms. Plus, it was a health-focused client, so...alignment. 

Then, 2022 came in on a somber note personally, but full of possibilities. After acting as a community consultant for Dr. LJ Punch, I officially came on with The Bullet Related Injury Clinic (The B.R.I.C) to lay the foundation for the Spiritual and Social Care Practice for the clinic in 2022. I took a break from that work in 2023 to go into musical and dramatic theater. Balance, y'all. During this time, I studied to become an End-of-Life Doula with the University of Vermont. Then 2024 was full juggle mode. I was teaching creative writing to 3rd - 8th graders at an afterschool program at The Legacy Center in St. Louis, MO., holding support days and tabling at the Central Branch Library for my organization Sibling Support Network, and I was recruited into the work of restorative justice with Freedom Community Center. (The serious stuff finds me.) I served as Lead Transformative Justice Practitioner on the Alternative to Incarceration team until January 2026. 

While my journey thus far may look like all the things, and unrelated, the thread that ties it all together is story-- being able to tell them, hold them, release them, deliver them poetically, theatrically in a way that demonstrates relevance, connection, and relatability.

Dorothy clicked her heels. I continue to walk the direction of my heart. We both end up home.