Briefly explain your role:

Multimedia advertising sales representative

Why did you get into this industry?

As a former English teacher, I love working for Gulf Coast Media where I get to combine my love for reading, writing, sales and getting to know people in the community. I love to learn about people and how they established their businesses and reading about the stories is interesting.

What's your newspaper/journalism journey to today?

I started out in a yearbook class in high school where I learned all the aspects similar to a newspaper with selling ads, design, layout and writing stories about the year in review. I fell in love with marketing and writing which led me to working in both marketing and as an English teacher in the future. While I was a teacher, I had my classes create a school newspaper every week so I could share my love of journalism with my students. Now, I get to work in sales with Gulf Coast Media and enjoy the stories of my colleagues.

What's something you've learned in the process?

Patience and understanding especially when dealing with deadlines.

How has working at a newspaper changed you?

Learning about people and their stories helps me understand people, I love to work with my customers and see their businesses succeed. We have so many great people in this community and I get to work alongside many of them in different aspects.

What's something you wish more people knew about your role or newspapers in general?

Encourage your children, friends and family to read magazines and newspapers. There are so many positive and encouraging stories that we need in the world. Our staff works very hard, long hours to help businesses and write beautiful stories. Sometimes things happen out of our control but we always have the best intentions with helping our community and promoting the businesses.

What's something completely non-newspaper related about yourself?

I have four amazing children each unique in their own way but my youngest son was diagnosed with Cystinuria, a rare kidney disease, at age 10. He has endured a lot in the last nine years and he is my hero. He has an amazing positive outlook when most people would be angry about his health condition. He treats everyone with kindness and is always appreciative and respectful to others. He has made me a better person and taught me so much about resiliency and being kind to others.