I am a writer and editor with a semi-useless degree in marine biology, whose life was forever changed (mostly in good ways) by a decade spent on Maui working for an alternative newsweekly. After subsequent editorial stints back in California at a daily newspaper in Palm Springs and another alternative newsweekly in Marin, I somehow found myself immersed in the Green Rush of the medical cannabis movement, assisting with media relations and marketing for the then-largest dispensary on the planet (in Oakland and San Jose, Calif.), attending elite industry and political functions with my cannabis superstar boyfriend by night. Shortly after the not-so-great legalization of 2018 and some time spent in a multi-state operator’s regulatory and licensing department, I left the cannabis industry.
Then the pandemic hit during a milestone trip to Italy. I explored nonprofit development work through a year of service in AmeriCorps. I rediscovered the joys of freelancing. And now I’m riding this rollercoaster loop back to where I had the most fun: in publishing–this time as editor of East Bay magazine in Oakland, Calif. Hurrah!
