As a multimedia producer at NASA, I implemented a broad range of innovative tools to deliver compelling content. What school kid doesn’t want to chat with an astronaut? As I filmed this Distance Learning Event at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Television Studio, I brought astronauts into classrooms and helped children across the country get excited about space.
My Creative Process
No matter the medium, each project I take on begins with one essential question: “How do I fully engage my learner?” As an educator I strive for one goal: to produce experiential educational material that is so dynamic and engaging, it sparks an insatiable, burning curiosity to learn more. When a project is a success, the learning continues long after the lesson is complete.
My career is equal parts glorious adventure and grueling hard work. I’ve lugged a camera to far flung corners of the globe and have had the great pleasure and challenge of finding and sharing extraordinary stories. I’ve filmed astronauts and the Queen of England, mountain lions and Iditarod dogs, firefighters and bear mauling victims. I am forever learning from extraordinary people and places, and that is why I love my work. I strive to communicate in the most impactful manner possible with the utmost integrity. I begin by thoroughly understanding my subject, my target audience, my available resources, and my timeframe. I work with all stakeholders to develop the most appropriate, most compelling tool for each unique learning challenge. I then measure a project’s success with a variety of methods. My team and my tools vary project by project- I’ve worked with dozens of people on a project and also as my own one woman band. I’ve crafted long and short format films, conceptual animations and data visualizations, interpretive presentations and classroom curricula, as well as complex, long format digital learning modules. These images and accompanying text offer a glimpse into my working world. Samples of my work can be played or accessed in the next section.
As an Interpretive Park Ranger, I developed and presented engaging programs to as many as 500 people on various natural history topics in Yellowstone National Park. I’ve also taught marine science to children while snorkeling at Catalina Island Marine Institute; led nature walks at the Block Island Bioreserve in Rhode Island; and gave interpretive tours on architecture at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, school, and studio at Taliesin West in Arizona. These posts in experiential and field-based education taught me so much, and forever inspire and inform my work in digital education. I now use innovative technological tools to emulate that immersive experience for my digital learners.
In my training and experience as a science filmmaker, I have come to truly appreciate the power of an image. I traveled throughout Iceland to find compelling footage for a film exploring how climate change impacts Iceland’s unique and beloved puffins. I felt a responsibility to visually illustrate the extent of this issue in as thorough a manner as possible, to allow my audience to truly see and experience both the magical country of Iceland and the magnitude of the problem that is climate change.
The act of filmmaking has brought me into contact with many extraordinary, memorable people and places. It has been one of my greatest honors, to be welcomed with open arms into someone’s very different world, and to be trusted completely with the telling of their story. It is a tremendous responsibility, which I aim to achieve with absolute integrity. I was hired to make a documentary film in Ethiopia to raise money for medical procedures and educational supplies impoverished Ethiopian children desperately need. This was the hardest and very best of my filmmaking experiences. Africa imprinted itself heavily on each of my senses. The soft dusty hues, the smell of burnt rock, the calamity of sound in the market. The extremity of the poverty, and the severity of the sickness were heart-wrenching. And yet the heart warming belly laughs came easily; we played soccer with all of our might, and I taught the children yoga as they toppled and giggled. Moments after we met, I would feel warm small hands slip into mine, and feel instantly loved by the children who walked at my side. My work has never made my heart more full. Or been more challenging. My gear was confiscated immediately upon arrival, and retrieving it, not to mention acquiring the appropriate permits for filming, was a lengthy, hot, sweaty, dusty, and uncertain endeavor. I am thankful for this and many other adventures in filmmaking.
Shooting, as the children did their best to ignore me, in an Ethiopian school for street kids
Projects
I invite you to experience samples of content I have created below.
As lead multimedia producer of NASA’s Glory Mission, I was charged with developing an array of multimedia tools to educate the general public on the significance of the mission. This introductory video is the first in a 7-segment series, and features conceptual animations, data visualizations, and interviews with leading scientists I produced as a part of this effort. Click to view.
I was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to examine a coastal issue in Iceland, and I chose to make a film on the impact of climate change on puffins. Plight of the Puffin aired on National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles, it routinely screens at Project Puffin Visitor Center in Maine, and it was a finalist at the American Conservation Film Festival and the International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana. Click to view.
Coastal Climate Change
At UCAR I served as the lead educational designer developing a 2.5-hour interactive web-based education course on coastal impacts of climate change. This product incorporates video, conceptual animations, still images, and interactive features which I and others produced, and is a free resource for anyone in the world. Click the button and you will be asked to complete a fast and easy registration prior to taking the course.