NPPA’s 2019 Women in Visual Journalism conference will take place, October 18-20th in Dallas! More Details will be posted soon!
This year’s theme is “Wonder Women,” and while you might not gain superpowers, you’ll learn from some super powerful women.
This conference is for all visual storytellers, including still and television photojournalists, multimedia journalists, online journalists, freelancers—everything will be covered. You’ll also be able to get feedback and critiques from some of the best in the industry.
This conference sold out last year, so sign up early and get ready to learn. Look for updates on speakers and sessions on our Facebook page.
Registration Info
NPPA Members $65
Non Members $125
Students $20
Travel Details
Event Location: Metro State University Campus
Baerresen Ballroom in the Tivoli on the Denver Auraria Campus
900 Auraria Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
View campus map here.
Airport: Denver International Airport
Hotel Info:
Hampton Inn & Suites Denver-Cherry Creek
4150 East Kentucky Avenue
Glendale, Colorado 80246
303-692-1800
Click here to receive the special discounted rate.
Book by August 28th to receive the discount.
Fairfield Inn and Suites Denver Cherry Creek
This hotel is close to the light rail that will take you directly to the conference location. Rooms start at $120/night.
Transportation:
From the airport:
- $9 one way: There is now a train that will take you from the airport to downtown. For more information on this service, check out their site.
- $25 one way: Super Shuttle, you can find more information on their website.
- $40-$50 one way: Uber/Lyft services.
- $60-70 one way: Taxi
Once you're here:
Getting around town is inexpensive, and there are a lot of Uber and Lyft drivers here. The event location is right on a light rail line. For light rail schedules, check out their website.
Event Schedule
SEPTEMBER 21, 2018
6:00 p.m. Syntax Physic Opera, 554 South Broadway, Denver, CO
Let’s meet up and start the weekend off right. Syntax has a small, but lovely food menu, and an extensive drink list. South Broadway is also a great place to explore after you drop in to meet other conference attendees and speakers. Don’t go wild though…Saturday is an early start! http://physicopera.com/
SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
8:00-8:45 Registration and Breakfast
8:45-9:00 Take your seats (please!!)
9:00-9:15 Anne Herbst and Julia Robinson welcome you to the conference
9:15-10:15 You Want Me to Do What? (lessons from an unexpected career path)
Nothing about Cheryl Preheim’s journey in journalism makes much sense--everything about it taught her how to keep from misjudging or missing the next opportunity. It turns out, failure isn’t always bad, you can accomplish a lot when you push into your fears, and with some humor, you can make do with what you’ve got.
10:30-11:30 Helen Richardson, The Denver Post
11:30-11:45 Meet up with your feedback mentor before you grab lunch—decide on meeting spot.
11:45-1:45 LUNCH!!! is on us!
Individual feedback sessions
This is available to those who sign up ahead of time. Meet with professionals to get feedback on your portfolio or your video storytelling. Please bring your computer already loaded with your work to make this as easy as possible.
Copyright & Contracts
Bring in your legal questions and contracts and NPPA legal counsel Alicia Calzada Wagner will check them out and give you advice.
2:00-3:15 STILLS BREAKOUT SESSION
#freelancelife
Gabriella Demzcuk, Julia Robinson, Joanna Pinneo discuss how they have made their finances, family, and fulfillment work for their careers.
VIDEO BREAKOUT SESSION
These are a Few of our Favorite Things
Noelle Walker, Cheryl Preheim, Anne Herbst, Zora Stephenson, and Ama Arthur-Asmah show some of their most memorable stories, and break down what makes a story memorable.
3:30-4:30 The Daily Grind: Making Daily Assignments Stand Out
Heidi Wigdahl explores different ways of transforming a report into a memorable story. She’ll discuss deadlines, burnout, and how to thrive while covering daily news.
4:45-6:00 Practicing Patience: Photographing Love and Loss
Lisa Krantz shows us the time and commitment it takes to tell stories with depth beyond the daily grind.
SATURDAY NIGHT MEETUP
6:30 p.m. Tivoli Brewing Company, 900 Auraria Parkway, Suite 240, Denver, CO
Right after the first day wraps up, we’ll head across the hallway to the campus brewery. Food is available for purchase, as are great Colorado beers and cocktails. Meet up with the speakers, find a new mentor, hang out with new friends.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2018
8:30-9:00 Breakfast/get settled
9:15-10:15 Lauren Frohne, The Seattle Times
10:15-10:30 Meet up with your feedback mentor before you grab lunch—decide on meeting spot.
10:30-11:30 STILLS BREAKOUT SESSION
Honing Your Vision
Lisa Krantz, Julia Robinson, Lindsay Pierce Martin, and Joanna Pinneo discuss how to refine your work and mission for better photos and better assignments.
VIDEO BREAKOUT SESSIONS
Working Solo (and liking it)
KUSA’s Anusha Roy moderates a panel of successful MMJs Katie Eastman, Heidi Wigdahl, and Zora Stephenson. KUSA managing editor Megan Jurgemeyer gives a manager’s perspective.
11:45-1:45 LUNCH!!! is on us again!
Individual feedback sessions
This is available to those who sign up ahead of time. Meet with professionals to get feedback on your portfolio or your video storytelling. Please bring your computer already loaded with your work to make this as easy as possible.
Student Q & A Session
Students interested in getting some questions answered about working in the journalism field are invited to grab lunch, and meet as a group with still photography professionals, or television/video professionals.
Copyright & Contracts
Bring in your legal questions and contracts and NPPA legal counsel Alicia Calzada Wagner will check them out and give you advice.
2:00-3:00 Ethics and Aesthetics
Gabriella Demczuk tells us how the choices we make in visual storytelling will define history in the future.
3:15-4:30 Panel Discussion: Diversity, Harassment, and Empowerment in the Newsroom and on the Job
Moderator Eden Lane guides a group of journalists through a discussion about topics that impact women in journalism. Panelists Marcia Allert, Sonia Gutierrez, Gabriella Demzcuk, and Anusha Roy share their stories and experiences. Alicia Calzada Wagner, NPPA legal counsel, will also be on hand to answer questions.
Questions?
For any event related questions please contact either Anne Herbst or Julia Robinson. For issues concerning registration contact [email protected].
Speakers
More speakers TBA!
Joanna Pinneo
Joanna B. Pinneo is a freelance photojournalist whose work has taken her to 66 countries from Tierra de Fuego in the south to Grise Fiord in the Arctic Circle. Joanna has covered immigration, global climate change, land disputes, ancient African trade routes and native peoples worldwide.
In 2016 Joanna was awarded A Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellowship at the University of Colorado. Joanna’s project is the effect of household air pollution on women and children in the developing world, and she continues to work on environmental issues.
Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, awarded a LIFE Magazine Alfred Eisenstadt prize for Nature Photography, Joanna's work has appeared in book collections including Women In the Material World and America at Home. Magazine work includes National Geographic, New York Times, Time, Geo, and American Photographer. Her photograph of a child sleeping with its mother in Mali, West Africa is included in the 50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic and graced the cover of National Geographic Magazine and the book Women Photographers at National Geographic. Joanna received an NPPA/Nikon Documentary Sabbatical Grant for her project Grrlstories exploring girls’ coming of age in America, a project dedicated to giving girls a voice through photography.
Joanna is a member of Girls Who Click, a non-profit organization designed to introduce girls to nature photography and inspire conservation.
Joanna is currently working on a book about the meaning of photographs in our lives and the people she has met.
Based in Colorado Joanna is represented by Aurora Photos.
Julia Robinson
I'm an independent photojournalist in my native Austin, Texas. I've worked for large metropolitan dailies as well as small-town newspapers and honored with recognition from Pictures of the Year International, NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, the Missouri Press Association, the Associated Press, and anyone who ever put my photo on their fridge.
I'm founder of a monthly photo gathering cleverly named Austin Photo Night and am the current NPPA Regional Chair for the South.
Clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USAToday, Wired, The Dallas Morning News, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Texas Highways Magazine, Reuters, The Texas Observer, and the University of Texas.
Cheryl Preheim
Cheryl Preheim is the evening anchor at the NBC affiliate in Atlanta. She joined WXIA, 11Alive News, after working at TEGNA's sister station in Denver, KUSA 9NEWS. Cheryl has been honored with the prestigious National Edward R. Murrow award three times.
She has been awarded nine Emmys, including Best Anchor, in-depth news story reporting, feature reporting, and for a half-hour documentary about her trip to Haiti. Cheryl wrote and produced the special, "From Haiti to Home."
She says in depth interviews with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Malala Yousafzai, Former President Jimmy Carter, and virtuoso violinist Izhak Perlman are among her most memorable.
The Olympics have been a favorite assignment for Cheryl. She covered them 4 times traveling to London, Sochi Russia, Rio, and South Korea. She covers the Olympics as a multi-skilled journalist; shooting and editing her own stories. In Korea, she engineered her own live shots as well.
Cheryl and her husband have four young children. Her youngest is 2 years old. She spends a lot of time working with many community organizations.
Cheryl lunched her “Brave Conquers Fear” series after 2 of her children faces medical challenges. Her 7-year-old son had an unexpected open-heart surgery. Her son came up with the motto “Brave Conquers Fear.” Cheryl now does stories that profile courage in the community through her “Brave Conquers Fear” series.
Katie Eastman
Katie joined 9NEWS in August 2017 as an MSJ (multi-skilled journalist) which means she shoots, writes, edits and reports.
Before heading west, she worked in Albany, New York where she won a New York Emmy Award for a story about a bunch of people playing hooky to watch a bridge implode.
Katie's favorite stories are about normal people doing not-so-normal things.
Katie also won a couple New England Emmy Awards for her work as a video journalist at the Boston Herald where she covered the Boston Marathon bombings and told the stories of survivors.
After graduating from Emerson College in 2011, Katie began her career in Des Moines, Iowa as a reporter at the ABC affiliate, WOI. While there, she got her 15 minutes of fame in a few cameos on The Colbert Report. One of them included her story on the longest garage sale in the country.
Originally from Maine, Katie loves running, Broadway musicals, and her long distance husband and cat.
Ama Arthur-Asmah
Ama Arthur-Asmah is an award-winning photojournalist who works at KUSA in Denver, Colorado. She got her start in photojournalism working in beautiful Burlington, Vermont. After surviving one New England winter, she moved south to Richmond, Virginia. At CBS 6 she learned how to be a better storyteller. While in Richmond, she worked on special projects covering the pitfalls of mental health care to the making of the Broadway hit, "The Lion King". In Richmond, Ama shot her most memorable story on a man named Thomas Haynesworth, who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. After years of missing Colorado’s blue skies, she moved back to Denver where she worked at KDVR before hoping across the street to KUSA. Ama is happy to be back in Denver where she is learning more about her hometown through storytelling. When she is not working, she enjoys hiking around the state with her Canon, or checking out Denver’s ever-changing food scene!
Ama is most proud of her recent Salute to Excellence National Media Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. This award was granted for a story she produced on the life of Ed Dwight Jr., a world renowned, African-American sculptor in the Denver area. Ama has also been honored with three Regional Emmys, and one Regional Murrow.
Ama is committed to finding unique stories which highlight people of color in her community. She is also very involved with NPPA’s Women in Visual Journalism Conference.
Sonia Gutierrez
Joining 9NEWS on December 5, 2017, was a dream come true for Sonia.
She’s a Colorado native, grew up in Denver and has deep roots in the Latinx community.
Es Latina y bilingüe.
This isn’t Sonia’s first time with 9NEWS. She was an intern years ago and worked for Telemundo Denver when they were housed inside our building.
After Telemundo, Sonia headed to the deep south. In South Carolina she worked with News19 WLTX. There she covered multiple hurricanes, the Charleston church shooting and the 1,000 year flood.
Critical life and death information wasn’t getting to the Hispanic community during that flood until Sonia began relaying the information in Spanish on-air, online, and through social media.
That bilingual reporting earned her an Emmy nomination.
When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, Sonia was sent to help our sister station in Houston. She spent a month there and told stories from communities not many other news outlets were going to. During that trip, Sonia was offered the job in Denver.
She’s an MSU Roadrunner and Ranum Radier.
Sonia was a part of the great work on Colorado driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants that earned Telemundo Denver multiple awards.
Anusha Roy
Anusha Roy joined 9NEWS in December 2016.
She previously worked in Washington, Idaho and Texas.
Anusha started her career in the Tri-Cities and in the shadow of the Hanford Nuclear Site covered fears of nuclear debris reaching Washington following a massive tsunami that hit Japan.
She later moved north to work as a reporter in Idaho and Spokane, Wash. Anusha found herself digging into an environmental controversy that pitted supporters of endangered wildlife against communities that depend on logging to survive.
She then moved back to Seattle, her home town, to work as a writer and associate producer for KIRO-TV before moving to Texas.
In San Antonio she worked to raise awareness about sex trafficking, reported in Waco after a biker shoot out resulted in 177 arrests and nine deaths as well as anchored the Saturday morning news.
She also received the Excellence in Media Award from the Texas Veterans Commission.
Anusha first fell in love with news when she interned with a TV network in India.
As she worked toward her journalism degree at the University of Washington, she co-produced and filmed a documentary on arranged marriages that was screened at the Independent South Asian Film Festival in Seattle.
She also narrated the award-winning documentary Threads. The film is about a Bangladeshi artist who taught a type of quilting that turned into a livelihood for hundreds of destitute women.
Anne Herbst
Anne Herbst is the Director of Visual Journalism at KUSA in Denver. She’s also the co-organizer (along with Julia Robinson) of the NPPA Women in Visual Journalism Conference.
Along with helping lead the one of the best photojournalist teams in the country, Anne is also a photojournalist and MMJ at KUSA. She likes to tell stories that make people proud to live in Colorado.
If you’re into the awards thing, Anne has won a few. Her husband is still trying to figure out what to do with her four national Murrow awards, her 30+ Emmys, and her numerous NPPA awards, including the NPPA Solo Video Journalist of the Year, and four regional NPPA Photographer of the Year awards. He thinks they need to put up a shelf. Anne is not quite sure about that. Any decorating tips are welcome.
Anne spends most of her free time with her husband, friends, and dog Stella. They all go hiking and biking and skiing and craft-beer-drinking in the best state in the country (in her opinion).
Zora Stephenson
Zora Stephenson joined FOX31 and Colorado’s Own Channel 2 as a reporter July 2017.
Zora is originally from Northern Virginia, but calls North Carolina home as well.
Before moving to Denver, Zora was a reporter at WNCT, the CBS affiliate in Greenville, North Carolina. She won RTDNAC's 2017 Reporter of the Year Award for her work in Eastern North Carolina. While in North Carolina, Zora covered just about everything and is no stranger to the big stories. She has covered multiple hurricanes and tropical storms including Hurricane Matthew. The historic storm gained national attention after it caused major flooding in Eastern North Carolina. She traveled the state of North Carolina to cover the 2016 presidential election. She was the stations go-to political reporter and enjoyed breaking down the democratic process for viewers. As a former Division 1 basketball player at Elon University, Zora will always love sports. It was normal to see her filling in as a sports anchor or on the football field reporting.
Zora also has experience as a sideline reporter, analyst, and host. During March of 2017, Zora worked for the Colonial Athletic Association during its basketball championships.
Zora is a proud member of the National Association of Black Journalists as well as Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.
When Zora isn’t working she enjoys attending various sporting events, spending time with friends and family, and trying out new restaurants. She’s always up for a good pickup game of basketball as well.
Heidi Wigdahl
Heidi Wigdahl is a multimedia journalist at KARE 11 in Minneapolis. As a general assignment reporter, she focuses on making the most out of day-turn stories. Heidi, a Minnesota native, started her career at KTTC in Rochester, Minn. She then headed south to Knoxville, Tenn. and spent two years at WBIR. Heidi graduated from DePaul University where the College of Communication named her “Journalism Student of the Year.” Her solo video work has received several awards, including an Emmy and two Regional Edward R. Murrow awards. In 2015, the Tennessee Associated Press named her “Best TV Reporter.” She loves journalism but she loves her cats more. Bunny Pancake and Backpack the Brave tolerate the company of their caretakers: Heidi and her husband, Eliot.
Gabriella Demczuk
Gabriella Demczuk is a Lebanese-American photographer, journalist, and printmaker based between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md.
Born in Sweden but raised in Luxembourg, Belgium, and later the United States, she studied fine arts and journalism at The George Washington University and photography at the Parsons School of Art and Design in Paris.
Gabriella has been recognized by The White House News Photographers Association, American Photography, The Society of Professional Journalists, Women Photograph, PH Museum, The Magenta Foundation, The Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Politico Playbook's Power List and Pictures of the Year International. Gabriella was named Photoboite's 30 Under 30 Women Photographers, a finalist for the Inge Morath award from the Magnum Foundation and Emerging Talent at Getty Reportage. She was recently named one of PDN's 30 Emerging Photographers of 2018.
Editorial clients include The New York Times, TIME, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Politico Magazine, The New Yorker, NPR, CNN, among others.
Eden Lane
Eden Lane is a freelance journalist based in Denver Colorado. She is the host and producer of In Focus with Eden Lane, on Colorado Public Television and PBS Digital. It is a true one-man-band/MMJ program as she shoots and edits almost every segment on her own. Preparing for the 11th Season, this weekly series has already featured over 350 original episodes spotlighting local and national music, theatre and arts. Eden has also served as a producer for CPT 12’s flagship LIVE Community Affairs program Studio 12. Additionally, Eden hosts LIVE Auction Broadcasts. After several years as a Homemaker and Stay-at-Home Mom Eden re-launched her career focusing on community affairs, and political reporting for the PBS affiliate. Among her awards and recognitions Eden was named BEST NON-NETWORK TV PERSONALITY- by Westword Best of Denver and a Denver Post Ovation Award.
Marcia Allert
Marcia Allert is the Director of Photography for The Dallas Morning News. She joined the organization in October 2016 and oversees a team of award-winning photographers, videographers, and picture editors. The team works closely with the editorial department to produce visual journalism that diversifies and deepens the storytelling. In 2017, her team won National Headliners, ASNE, and Texas APME awards for their coverage of the Dallas police shootings. Allert has also worked at the Associated Press, ABC News, The New York Times and The Daily Beast. Allert graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Photography.
Lindsay Pierce Martin
Lindsay Pierce Martin is a documentary photographer and filmmaker. She was a photojournalist and videographer for the Denver Post for 7 years, from 2011 to 2018. She also has worked as a still photographer for the Daily Times in Farmington, N.M., and for YourHub, the hyper-local section of The Denver Post.
Professional recognitions include national Edward R. Murrow awards, Heartland Emmy awards and NPPA Best of Photojournalism awards. She was part of a Denver Post team recognized as finalists for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting and was the 2017 NPPA Quarterly Clips Contest Multimedia Photographer of the Year.
Pierce was raised in Kansas City, Missouri and studied photojournalism at Boston University. She now lives in Arvada, Colo. with her husband Steve and their 2 daughters, Maevery and Mica. Outside of work, she tries to do more running, biking and hiking than dish-washing and laundry. The battle is real but she's determined.
Lisa Krantz
Lisa Krantz is a staff photographer at the San Antonio Express-News in Texas. Lisa was recently named as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for the story of Rowan Windham, a 10-year-old who inspired others with his positive outlook on life despite battling a rare, incurable disorder. She was also a finalist in 2015 as part of a team entry on the Central American immigration crisis. Her work has been recognized by World Press Photo and Pictures of the Year International (POYi) including the Community Awareness Award and third place Newspaper Photographer of the Year (2010 & 2015). She has twice received both the ASNE Photojournalism Award and the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for Photojournalism. NPPA's Best of Photojournalism, PDN Photo Annual, SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi and the National Headliner Awards have also recognized her work. She is a three-time NPPA Region 8 Photographer of the Year.
A Life Apart: The Toll of Obesity, the story of Hector Garcia Jr.'s struggle with obesity in the last four years of his life, was screened at Visa pour l'Image in Perpignan, France, and exhibited at the Festival della Fotografia Etica in Lodi, Italy. Lisa has a psychology degree from Florida State University and a MA in photography from Syracuse University. Previously she worked at the Naples (FL) Daily News. She is an avid trail runner, regularly daydreaming about her next ultramarathon, and lives in San Antonio with her husband, Jay, two goofy Greyhounds and one grumpy cat.
Megan Jurgemeyer
Megan Jurgemeyer is the Managing Editor at 9NEWS in Denver. Her responsibilities include day-to-day news gathering, coordination of news crews and long-term coverage planning.
After working in management in the construction supply industry for several years, Megan decided to explore her love for writing and journalism. She earned her Masters of Mass Communication from Arizona State University in 2008 before taking her first job in news as an anchor and reporter at KREX in Grand Junction, Colorado. In 2010, Megan took a job at KMGH in Denver, where she worked in a variety of assignment desk and producer roles. She accepted a position as senior weekend producer at KUSA in 2013 and moved into her current position in late 2015.
As an undergrad, Megan attended Colorado State University, where she obtained a B.A. in English in 1999. She is active in the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Heartland Chapter. In 2015, the Associated Press Television and Radio Association awarded Jurgemeyer with the Mark Twain Award for Best Assignment Team/Live Breaking News for her role in coordinating coverage of the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.
When she has free time, you can usually find Megan cooking or checking out new restaurants with her friends and family. And to find out her go-to karaoke song, you’ll just have to look for her at the bar
Noelle Walker
I was telling stories long before I remember doing it. When my sister and I cleared out the attic of our childhood home years ago, we found a portfolio with my name on the outside and “reporter” notebooks -- actual reporter notebooks -- inside. The pages had notes and stories about our neighborhood and friends, all written in my unsteady childhood handwriting. I was either going to grow up to be your nosey neighbor, or a news reporter.
I've been a reporter at KXAS-TV, the NBC O&O in Dallas since 2016. Before that, I freelanced for NBC Network, and worked at stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Santa Barbara. My first job was at KMIZ-TV in Columbia, MO as a weekend weather anchor/reporter. In my interview, I told the News Director, “The only thing I know about weather is if there are clouds, it might rain.” She asked if I could talk without a script. I could. I leave the weather forecasting to the professionals now.
I feel fortunate to have picked up a few awards for writing and reporting along the way. You don’t see them on air or hear their names, but the photographers I work with are a big part of those awards. Storytelling is a team sport.
They say if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. By that standard, I’ve never really worked.
Helen Richardson
A photojournalist, Richardson has covered large breaking news stories, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attackson on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the 2004-05 tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand; the death of Pope John Paul II in Rome; and the effects of AIDS and lack of water in African nations. She covered the Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, in 2006 and the summer games in Beijing in 2008. In Colorado, she covers news and sports and specializes in wildfire coverage. She particularly enjoys stories that converge with her interests, which include rock and ice climbing, extreme sports, nature, animals and the environment.
Lauren Frohne
Lauren Frohne is a video journalist for The Seattle Times, where she collaborates with a small video team and staff photojournalists to produce engaging, character-driven stories that explore social issues, news, and the diversity of the Seattle community.
Previously, she was the multimedia producer for the Open Society Foundations, a human rights and social justice organization working with some of the most marginalized populations in the world. Before that, she was a video journalist for The Boston Globe. She earned a master’s degree in journalism with a focus on visual communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010 and interned at The Roanoke Times.
She has led, managed and collaborated with teams on ambitious, award-winning video and multimedia projects — including UNC's "Powering a Nation" and The Seattle Times' "Under Our Skin" — and she has been a faculty member for the NPPA Multimedia Immersion workshop since 2013. Her work has been recognized by World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, NPPA Best of Photojournalism, New England Emmys and the Edward R. Murrow Awards, among others, and has taken her all over the world from Liberia to Slovakia, Haiti to the Galapagos Islands, and across the United States.
She was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, with New York roots, and currently spends a lot of her free time hiking, camping and canoeing in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.
