Work

As a mental health expert and marketing and communications executive with 15 years experience building and growing brands, I know that tech can improve the health and happiness of the world.

Through my work at national nonprofits and in the media, I have played a role in de-stigmatizing mental health by developing marketing and communications campaigns and programs that drive help-seeking behavior, whether it means texting a crisis hotline or finding a therapist online. 

This is my career so far.

Magazine Editor Era

I worked my way up the masthead in magazine publishing with roles at Time, Inc., Harris, and Hearst. I unofficially kicked off my tech career by launching Cosmopolitan.com in 2007, integrating social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr), content syndication and marketing (Pinterest and Yahoo! Shine), and SEO best practices as they were developed. Over the course of my writing career, I’ve published hundreds of articles and won two Lone Star Awards for Best Magazine Writing in 2012 and 2015. 

After writing a series of essays about mental illness for Salon and The Morning News, I began getting messages from strangers who were also looking for answers. I decided to become part of the solution.

Nonprofit Marketing & Communication Era

I pivoted to the mental health space to build a content-rich National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website to improve UX and serve as a public health resource. At the Lifeline, I began speaking to journalists as a spokesperson, and developed deep relationships with national media. I also worked with Facebook, Tumblr, Google, and YouTube to establish best practices for suicide prevention using search and social media, securing top placement for related keywords. While working at Fountain House, a community-based therapy program for people with serious mental illness, I earned a Masters in Public Health with a focus in health care policy. 

Author & Advocate Era

After graduate school, I published "Everything is Going to Be OK: A Real Talk Guide” to Living Well with Mental Illness” to help young adults navigate the difficult road from diagnosis to treatment to recovery. I advocated for increased support for mental health with policymakers in DC and with the Moms Demand Action legislative team advocating for common sense gun safety laws in Pennsylvania. 

Mental Health Tech Era

In my first role in tech, I was responsible for marketing and growth of Crisis Text Line, a free 24/7 text-based crisis counseling service available in the US, Canada, UK, and Ireland. I developed a data-driven email newsletter and annual trend report for journalists that highlight crisis trends of texters, which earned 500+ stories about our response to COVID-19 in 2020, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, NY Times, WSJ, Washington Post, The Hill, Vice, and Newsweek. 

I worked with Postpartum Support International to launch a national mental health hotline for pregnant and postpartum women and their families for an Health and Human Services agency under the Biden Administration. We launched the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline on Mother’s Day 2022. I also advised a substance abuse recovery app, Dynamicare and launched my own digital course, Mentally Strong Moms.

Today, as Director of Marketing for Brave Health, I help people with serious mental illness access high-quality therapy programs and psychiatry via telehealth.