MY NIGHTSTAND is overrun with dogeared magazines—heck, so is my car, my desk, my drawers, my life. And here's why: Magazines are what I do. I edit one, for starters: the award-winning Arkansas Life magazine (you can read the current issue here), which requires me to dig up compelling stories across my home state, creating features about everything from sustainable architecture to local art exhibitions to, you know, how to throw a crawfish boil. I was fortunate to learn from some of the best while serving as assistant editor at Washingtonian magazine—and while studying under journalists from the likes of NPR, Washington Post, Time and Glamour while pursuing my master's at Georgetown University. I'm a design hound (er, Design Sponge stalker), a lover of good gin (I'll take a Small's, please), a (relatively) new mom, a contemporary art and architecture nerd (as in, I plan vacations around Frank Lloyd Wright sites and art museums) and a proud-to-be-Southern gal who, somehow, despises the heat.

ARKANSAS LIFE RECOGNITION

• Best Niche Product, Society for Features Journalism

• Best Magazine Column, Great Plains Journalism Awards

• Best Feature Photography, Great Plains Journalism Awards

• Finalist for Magazine of the Year, Great Plains Journalism Awards

• Finalist for Magazine of the Year, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

• Gold Award for Art Direction of a Single Story, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

• Gold Award for Food Feature, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

• Silver Award for Special Focus Issue, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

• Bronze Award for Reader Service Article, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

PERSONAL RECOGNITION

• Finalist for Magazine Writer of the Year, Great Plains Journalism Awards

• Gold Award for Art & Culture Feature, International Regional Magazine Association Awards

• Journalism Student of the Year, Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies