Bio
Personal Profile
From a young age, I’ve always had a sense of motivation and passion driving me forward. Whether it’s exploring unique opportunities, learning additional skills, or meeting new people, I bring these values to every experience throughout my life on a personal and professional level. To learn more about me, keep exploring my site or reach out directly.
My Experience
Background & Expertise
Affordable Care - Front Desk Manager
July 2018-Present
Affordable Care is the corporate company that owns Affordable Dentures and Implants. My position is Front Desk Manager, and Creative Copy. I run the front desk, support the Executive team, help with catering, answer the Practice Owner hotline, and create documents and visuals for the company as a whole.
Stage Door Dance Productions - Instructor
November 2013-Present
Stage Door Dance is a recreational dance studio that believes in growing children into well rounded, responsible people. Besides teaching dance, the studio has an intensive training program where the students have a required amount of community service. Many of them also participate in shows in local theaters, dance competitions, and even Broadway shows!
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I am helping SDD launch a new ballet concentration program starting in the 2018-19 school year, designed to help provide solid technique and more performance opportunities to dancers focused on their ballet education.
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Currently at SDD, I teach ages 2-18.
Staffing Support Solutions - Administrative Assistant
May 2016-July 2018
Staffing Support Solutions works mainly with construction, solar energy, and HVAC freelancers, and plugs them in with clients. My job at S3 included building and maintaining their website, all reception and administrative work (filing, scanning, unemployment, child support, garnishments, phone calls), writing memos, creating job descriptions, emailing clients, and creating applications for employees.
Planet Fitness - Weekday Opener and Shift Lead
July 2015-May2016
At Planet Fitness we call ourselves the Judgement Free Zone. We want to make sure every member is comfortable and supported. My job at the front desk involved answering and making phone calls, collecting membership dues, dealing with private information in a secure way, giving tours of the facility, selling memberships, and helping customers with billing or policy problems.
Panera Bread - Associate Trainer
October 2013-June 2015
Panera Bread is dedicated to their cultural values; No Jerks, Do whatever it takes to make it right, and go above and beyond for every customer. I learned so much about what it means to really fight for customer service while still supporting the integrity and policies of the company. I also found a love for the high-stress and fast-paced environment of a Friday lunch-rush.
Encore Dance Ministries - Instructor
January 2012-August 2013
Encore Dance is a dance ministry based in Sylva NC, with a second location in Cheroke NC. They provide a positive, loving, comfortable learning environment for ages 2-16. They are a Christian dance studio with a competitive team and a worship team.
During my time at Encore Dance, I helped start the worship team, and helped organize performances at various different churches in the area. The team went on to do a missions trip in () and now continue traveling the area to worship God through dance. I also helped start their pointe program.
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Encore Dance ministries closed in 2017.
North Georgia Studio of Performing Arts
August 2012-May2013
NGPA was founded by Brieanna Bailey, the dance director of the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee Preparatory School. I came on as her ballet and pointe teacher the first year they were open. I worked with a variety of levels. Many times I had students with many years of high-level dance experience and students who had no dance experience in the same class. This provided an interesting challenge for me to create lesson plans that were suitable for the broad age and levels I had in a single class.
ClayMates Pottery - Pottery Instructor, Independent Contractor
June 2025 - April 2026
Claymates Pottery is a paint-your-own pottery store that also offered fused glass projects. They wanted to add handbuilding to their offering, and I had experience in teaching it. I created a self-guided book with projects, instructions, and finishing techniques to guide a beginner student through a basic project, unaided by a teacher. See a sample on my Projects page.
Bear Hands Art Factory
August 2004-July 2012; now Freelance
Formerly known as Art &Materials, my family owned a retail art supply store where I gained my foundational knowledge of customer service and administrative work. I started working for my father doing cleaning, and then he slowly started giving me other assignments, such as answering the phone, making phone calls to sign people up for classes, sorting mail, organizing bills, and reconciling the daily report. I also assisted him teaching his classes and helped him develop and refine many projects. Eventually I completely redesigned his website, created and formatted his publicity materials, flyers, and class schedule, and wrote articles for the newsletter.
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When Bear Hands Art Factory changed to Bear Hands Pottery and eventually stopped their retail and classes, my mother took over the name and now creates and sells her own pottery at festivals and galleries around North Carolina. I re-created her website, wrote her media kit, and designed promotional material for her business. We are currently brainstorming a promotional video and a social media strategy to grow her followers online.
Education
Western Carolina University
BA- Professional Writing and Editing
August 2011-August 2013
My degree in Professional Writing and Editing mostly revolved around:
writing for the workplace (memos, emails, project proposals, status reports)
writing for the internet (ads, copy, websites)
promotional material (business cards, media kits, brochures)
some larger-scale projects such as instructional material, tutorials, applications, and reports
Some of my projects included:
Editing a student handbook for a local Teen Rehab center
Creating a step-by-step tutorial on how to build animal figurines from clay
Internship with an Artist Residency center in Georgia, created a blog and professionally edited and formatted book for them based off their founder's writings and quotes (sample below)
BA- Special Studies
January 2012-August 2013
My degree in Ballet Pedagogy is listed as a Special Studies degree. WCU provided me a unique opportunity to build my own degree program. I consulted the dance, theater, and Stage and Screen department heads, and the Dean of the Honors College while creating the program. I took a variety of classes from Special Education to Nutrition to French, alongside all the ballet classes, dance classes, and dance-related anatomy classes. I assisted and taught several lessons for the lower level ballet classes, wrote a lot of reports, and even did a health and nutrition study specifically for dancers. While in college, I also taught private lessons to some of the more serious students, started a pointe class, and worked at 2 local dance studios. I also created my dance blog, Beyond the Barre, which later grew into a totally new project. Learn more about BTB below.
My Skills
a summary of my workplace skills and expertise
Computer Skills
Competent and Advanced - Ms Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook
Advanced - Wix editor and Canva Online
Beginner - Adobe Pro, InDesign
COATS database
Touch Type 80-90 WPM (depending on content)
Professional emails and memos
Social media promotion, blogging and marketing
Customer Service and Team Leadership
I believe all customers should be sold what they need, not the highest price, largest package, or biggest upcharge
Excellent at building long-term relationships, diffusing tense situations, and maintaining professional integrity
All customers should walk away from an encounter satisfied and excited to return
Some Middle Management experience, liaison between entry level employees and regional/higher level managers, communicating information effectively to team in a positive and motivating way
Comfortable with public speaking and presentations
Administrative Work
Making/taking phone calls and faxes
Writing professional emails, memos, and documents
Creating promotional materials, schedules, and project proposals
Scanning, filing, and organizing (paper and digital)
Handling confidential and personal information safely
Management of new hire paperwork, e-verify, and new hire reporting
Management of online contract/application software
Data entry
Some payroll experience
Some AP/AR experience
Volunteer Work
Library
New Bern, NC, 2005-2010
Through high school, I participated in a teen library organization that helped reach kids and plan projects and events for the library.
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My main jobs were to read the Advanced Reading Copies sent to the library, and recommend the best ones to the lead librarian for ordering copies to have on the shelves. I also presented the new Children/YA books to the summer camp attendees, helped with the crafts and projects, organized and prepared the food, and helped with the games and other activities for the younger children.
Catman2
Sylva, NC, 2012-13
While in college, I volunteered with the Catman2 animal shelter to clean, feed, and socialize the rescue cats. I also created a donation drive at the university and brought donated blankets, cat food, treats, and toys to the shelter.
Teen Challenge
Cullowhee, NC, 2012
Teen Challenge of the Smokies is a Christian organization that helps teens and young adults recover from addiction. I did an independent project in my writing class to benefit them by editing and re-formatting their documents, including all their student manuals, applications, rule books, website, and promotional material.
My Projects
Some of my most recent projects
Beyond the Barre
Beyond the Barre is a website dedicated to promoting health, wellness, artistry, injury prevention, and ethics in the dance industry. It's main focuses include injury prevention, nutrition, healthy understanding of body image and weight, and safer techniques.
BTB also provides articles and help for dance parents, teachers, and studio owners.
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In November of 2017, BTB launched the first online webinar-styled dance conference. "The Healthy Dancer" conference provided presentations on injury prevention, mental health, physical health, nutrition, safer social media promotion, recovering from injury, pre-pointe, and more. Speakers included Jess Spinner of The Whole Dancer, Dr. Marissa Shaeffer, Dr. Alexis Sams, and Christina Donaldson and Leslie Scott of YPAD, as well as a panel of professional dancers for a Q&A session. The conference brought in over $1000, and had more than 200 attendees nationwide.
As a result of the conference, YPAD provided BTB with complimentary certification of their program, which is currently in progress.
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Beyond the Barre continues to be a place of health, wellness, and safety for dancers, support and education for dance moms, and resources for dance teachers.
Internship- Hambidge Residency
My summer internship in 2012 involved staying at the Hambidge Artist Residency center in North Georgia. While at Hambidge, I started a blog for the center, interviewed many of the artists who were staying there, photographed events, and helped during open house tours.
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My writing for them revolved around a book put together years ago. The founder of the center, Mary Hambidge, was an artist and writer, and someone had created a book of her writings. Unfortunately it was poorly put together with no sense of organization, so I recreated the book and made a digital copy. The main purpose was to make Mary Hambidge's writings shareable and accessible to the staff and followers of her work.
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While at the internship, I also worked on some personal projects, including textiles, fiction novels, and fabric/yarn dyeing.
Website and Promotional Material - Bear Hands Art
Website designed for artist and potter Shelley Mathiot, as well as all her promotional material, flyers, and media kit.
Interests and Hobbies
Just for Fun
Soft Skills
Creative, problem solver
Motivated
Self-starter, self learner
Adaptable
Time Management
Communication, leadership
Work Ethic
Attention to Detail
Interests
Fine and Performing arts
Books and literature
Science and new discoveries
Athleticism and sports medicine
Enterpenurial trends
Social networking
Hobbies
Fitness
Craft beer
Textiles, crafts, and DIY
Fiction and literature
Audiobooks
British TV shows
Baking