To my new people and my old stalkers, this one’s for you.

Well, technically they all are, but this one is especially for you. Consider this your guide to the variety of things you might see flitting across my social media streams or posted here. Yes, they are all mine.

VoiceBox Media

This is a media start-up I founded in November 2012. It’s the culmination of about 13 years of dreaming, educating and training before I took the plunge and started it. It’s a nonprofit news service that provides in-depth coverage on social issues and the people, policies and models in place to solve them.

Some of our recent projects you’ll see me post about:

Children on the Edge: Telling the Migrant Children’s Story is our largest reporting project to date and we’re currently raising money via Kickstarter to support our travel to border towns and the family detention facilities where migrant children are detained with their mothers after fleeing violence in their Central American countries. You might see images like this one appear in my Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds. They symbolize this important reporting project. (And yes! We’d love to have your support!)

Poverty in San Marcos, Texas is an in-depth multimedia project that our summer team of interns is tackling. This team represents a landmark summer for VoiceBox Media as they hail from three universities (Texas State University, Murray State University and Indiana University), and we are partnering with the Austin American-Statesman and Latina Lista (they will publish the content we produce). You’ll see me sharing images that look like this. They represent this project.

When People Act: Baltimore Uprising was a 4-day reporting trip I took to Baltimore with two of my former interns in May. Our goal was to tell the stories of people doing social good in impoverished neighborhoods in East and West Baltimore. In total, we spoke to 17 people, attended four events, wrote 14 stories, produced countless videos and profiled portraits of social activists. There are still stories we’re producing from our trip.

Lecturer

It’s no exaggeration when I say I have my favorite job at Texas State University. I get to work with innovative people and share my love and passion for this industry. My load varies but my courses are mostly skills-based in editing, newswriting and advanced newswriting, multimedia journalism and grammar for journalists. I also have the express privilege of recruiting interns for VoiceBox Media’s semester-long internship programs and engaging in university advancement initiatives.

Wait, but don’t you have dogs? Puppies?

Indeed. My little dog family is made up of Tuck and Skye and currently we’re raising our 2015 litter of two (Nike and Cairo). So basically my social media feeds have been full of them. When we’re not raising puppies, I’m off hiking with Tuck and Skye sleeps on a lot on a leather couch.

The lifestyle

I live in a renovated 1973 Holiday Rambler with my mom, Tuck and Skye. Yes, we’ve been camping full time for a year and a half. I blog about our adventures here and share photos and updates on social media. We began this crazy thing in December 2013 when I found a 450 square-foot RV for rent on six acres. We signed a six-month lease and moved in. Then we extended the lease another six months and when our landlord said, “Hey, you guys want to move your own RV on the land in the same spot?” we laughed and said, “That lady’s crazy!” But then we crunched numbers, we liked what we saw and in November 2014, I bought the 240-square-foot Holiday Rambler and we spent three months renovating it. We moved in in January and here we are. I am in love with the tiny house way of life.

The memoir

My No. 1 motivation for moving into the RV was so that I could finish my memoir, “And Then This Happened.” Having grown up traveling the United States in a 1983 Fleetwood travel trailer in a sub-culture of the Christian Patriot/Identity Movement, I wanted to get as close to my roots as possible while I finished my memoir. Well, I’m still writing and revising. But I promise. It’ll be published soon and then you can read it.

Freelancing

From time to time you’ll hear about my published work and guest lectures. I’m incredibly blessed every time I make a pitch and someone says, “Yes, we want that.” I like to tell you about those things.

Life

You’ll hear about my travels, relationships, friends, adventures, the chronic diseases I deal with and my self-image. Sometimes I need to share things like this with you. And I want to hear back from you. So, like, share, favorite, retweet and comment! Let’s converse.