About Me

Career

As a high school senior, I stood at a register behind the counter at a Popeyes Chicken. The customer whose order I took looked so familiar I had to say it:

“How do I know you?”

He, it turned out, was a Tampa Tribune staff member who’d spoken for my school‘s journalism class.

“I want to write for newspapers!” I said. So he handed me his business card and told me to reach out.

I did, expecting my big break—and he never called me back. But I couldn’t kick the call I felt to write. So I did what any hyper-motivated high school student would: I called his competitor.

I left a voicemail for an editor at the Tampa Bay Times, and he called back an hour later. A week later, I had my first assignment as a Times correspondent.

This would change my life.

The morning my first feature story published, I couldn’t believe it was real.

But it was.

I wrote freelance for the Times for three years until 2007, when I joined the staff, where I stayed until 2016 (except for a nine-month hiatus I took to work on a book and finish my master’s degree). Journalism for me was like therapy for the people I wrote about, so I got a master’s in counseling.

I went on to write for the Virginian-Pilot, and I write freelance for Gulf Coast Catholic Magazine and CatholicMatch. I’ve also worked as a social media marketing producer for The Christian Broadcasting Network and am in my sixth year of content editing full-time.

If something needs to be said, it is my joy, my craft, and my career to say it clearly, concisely, and creatively.

And sometimes, I still can’t believe it’s real.

Chastity Speaking/Writing

I got married on Feb. 3, 2024 as a 38-year-old virgin.

Yes, it’s true.

But I dated a dude once who didn’t want that for me, who hoped I’d forgo the virtue of chastity. I didn’t. But I did explain why in an essay I wrote for the Tampa Bay Times.

What I wrote struck chords and nerves. The public’s response to it resulted in this blog; in my book, Chastity is For Lovers: Single, Happy, and (Still) a Virgin (Ave Maria Press, 2014); and my giving keynote chastity talks to audiences of lots of ages in places like churches and bars.

On this site, my personal blog, you’ll find posts designed to encourage critical thought about relationships and sex; to encourage readers who practice chastity; to provide insight into an alternative way of life for the readers who don’t; and to explore how American culture impacts Christianity.

Bio

I was born and raised in the sunny (when not hurricane-y) Tampa Bay area of Florida. My Catholic mom and Jewish dad opted to have me baptized Catholic as a baby. My dad converted to Catholicism the year I transferred from a public school to a private, Protestant one. His conversion and debates initiated by my mildly anti-Catholic teachers resulted in our studying Church teaching, side-by-side.

What I believe as a Roman Catholic was questioned frequently at the school, which I attended from fifth grade through twelfth, and I wouldn’t trade the experience. In it, I discovered my passion for Catholicism, and in Catholicism, I met Jesus, who is my savior, friend, and role model.

My other passion is writing. My oldest clear memory of writing is of the time I spoke a story aloud so my mom could use her typewriter to type it. I was probably six. She was patient.

Writing, for me, was underlain by a love for reading, cultivated by practice, and supported by all the people I forced to read each finished product. (Shoutout to the neighbors who didn’t get mad the time I littered your lawns with the “newspaper” I wrote.)

I don’t remember deciding that I wanted to be an author; pretty sure I was born that way. By my sophomore year of high school, I also wanted to be a journalist. In a series of profoundly humbling events indicative of God’s providence, I started writing for the Times as a correspondent in my senior year of high school, joined the Times staff the summer before I graduated from college, and was invited by Ave Maria Press in 2013 to write a book.

My goal, regardless of for which publication, is for what I write to make readers think (bonus points if it inspires readers to laugh or cry). That I do what I do for a living is a privilege. That you are here, supporting me in it, means more to me than I can express adequately. Your prayers as I continue to pursue my calling and career are appreciated.

Fun Facts

• I up and moved to Hampton Roads, Virginia in the summer of 2016, because adventurous.
• I up and moved back to the Tampa Bay Area in the summer of 2019, because HOME.
• I was a staff writer for the Tampa Bay Times, Florida’s largest newspaper, for nine years.
• I later wrote as a correspondent for the Virginian-Pilot, which is Virginia’s largest newspaper.
• I am a contributing writer Gulf Coast Catholic Magazine, at the Catholic Match Institute, and the Chastity Project.
• I have a master’s degree in rehabilitation and mental health counseling from the University of South Florida and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the same university.
• By day, I’m the content specialist (a.k.a. editor) for Family First.
• I met my husband in line for confession at our parish.

Connect

I can be reached via email and on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.