Building on my work in journalism, public relations, software, film and academia, I left teaching and joined the tech arena in the '90s as a Flash designer and developer. As a creative director, my responsibilities range from motion design to photo manipulation to user interface, as well as traditional packaging design and general marketing collateral. Award winning DVD covers and menus, retail store and event branding and signage, catalogs, public service subway and street posters are among the projects I have taken on.

Cranking out copy at 4am for a 5am press deadline…cutting 16mm on a Steenbeck flatbed…meeting one hour a week with each of my honors writing students at USC…

As a college newspaper editor-in-chief, film maker and university instructor, I have learned the pleasures of producing content hands on. And as a creative director for 15-plus years, I have lead both Photoshop-wielding art teams to produce the graphic collateral that propels an industry, and the web development teams that deliver it.

Project management can mean many different things. As a creative director, I’ve had the challenge and luxury of building an art department from scratch, as well as taking over hybrid creative-slash-development teams.

Every team, no matter how stable (or not), no matter how small or large the company, will always be in flux to some degree. Resisting inertia and moving forward—those goals will always be relevant.