Experience

Sole Proprietor / Orsini Bowers Media — January 2013 – present.

• Fandom columnist at Forbes.
• Bylines at ReadWrite, The Women’s Book, PBS MediaShift, The Daily Dot, Anime News Network, and others.
• Assistant editor for a special cosplay edition of Otaku USA Magazine.
• Author of Cosplay: The Fantasy World Of Role Play and co-author of Raspberry Pi and AVR Projects.

Reporter and Graphics Specialist / The Daily Dot — August 2011 – December 2012.

• Researched and reported more than 500 stories focused on community and cultural topics. Portfolio here.
• Edited and controlled quality for stories published during my editing shifts.
• Designed and maintained a visual advertisement campaign inspired by Internet memes.
• Researched and designed visual journalism infographics using Illustrator.

Interactive Designer / Pew Center on the States — December 2010 – July 2011.

• Designed and built complex interactive maps and graphics using JavaScript and Flash languages ActionScript 2 and 3.
• Provided CMS support for both pewcenteronthestates.org and stateline.org.

Visual Journalist / Investigative Reporting Workshop — September 2009 – November 2010.

• Created infographics on complex subjects in a fast-paced work environment.
• Designed and built infographics on X-rays; media and broadband companies; lobbying by chemical companies.
• Published on partner websites, including Politics Daily.

Education

American University / August 2009 – August 2010. Washington, D.C.

• Graduated with M.A. in Journalism and Public Policy.
• Maintained 3.70 GPA.
• Worked as a TA for Professor Lynne Perri.
• While in school, completed two internships at the Newseum and Kotaku (Gawker Media).

University of Mary Washington / August 2005 – May 2009. Fredericksburg, VA.

• Graduated summa cum laude with B.A. in English with honors, focus in Creative Writing.
• Maintained 3.80 GPA.
• Worked all four years at the UMW Speaking Center as a public speaking coach.
• Interned at the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.

Skills

• Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite CS5, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and Premiere Pro.
• Familiar with many Web content management systems with specialties in WordPress and Drupal.
• Self taught in Python, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
• Conversational Japanese.