I have worked as a freelance writer since the early 1990s, venturing into the world of independent writing after a 20-year career as a publications manager, editor and writer. I transitioned into full-time freelancing in 2011.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I attended the University of the Pacific, where I became editor of the student newspaper my junior year. I moved to the Midwest in 1973 for graduate school and never went back. I am a Midwesterner to the core and have lived, and written in, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, and now back to Kansas. My paternal grandmother was born in Salina, Kan., although that wasn’t what drew me here or what keeps me. As Willa Cather wrote, it’s a kind of freemasonry being from the Midwest whether because of the people, the bright blue skies in winter, the rumbling thunder in June or the ability to watch a single dark speck on the flat horizon grow larger and larger until it looms overhead, a hawk on the lookout for prey.

My first job was as a reporter/photographer for a medical newspaper, truly a case of being at the right place at the right time.  A week after being hired, I was holding a camera in trembling hands to photograph (then) Vice President Gerald Ford. My interviewees have included researchers, teachers, parents, children with disabilities, elected officials, ordinary folks, headliners and sort-of celebrities (does Carl Kassel count?). Among my most memorable projects was a lengthy piece on a family in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and their desperate struggle to get their kid who had multiple disabilities to safety during Hurricane Katrina. I also edited a policy piece on the conflicting needs for passenger safety when an airline is confronted with service animals on flights. Got a hot-button topic? I can help.

My core principles are simple:

Make the deadline.

Respect the word count.

Treat each job as if my career depends on it …because it does.