Over the years, I have come to use “feral” to describe my approach to work. Now it is the guiding principle for The Feral Freelancer: I have many interests, skills, and projects–and so do my clients!
As a professor, mentoring and advising were among my favorite responsibilities. Although coaching differs from advising in several important ways, I was drawn to it because I find joy in helping people access their own wisdom to understand their motivations, challenges, and goals. I am particularly driven to help other “ferals” in a world where we are often misunderstood. Because I am a recovering academic who believes in continuing education, I am pursuing an ACC credential through the International Coaching Federation (expected by the end of 2024). My personal experience with getting into and out of debt motivates me to help others take control of their financial lives. Toward this end, I became a YNAB-certified budgeting coach in 2022.
My passion for editorial work (from big-picture work to the fine detail of proofreading) began with my work for my high school literary magazine–first as Poetry Editor and later as Managing Editor. The continuing ed courses in copyediting and proofreading I took at George Washington University after college have served me well: in addition to my freelance editing work, I am Coeditor in Chief for the Women, Gender, and Sexuality revision of Oxford Music Online and served as Reviews Editor for Women & Music from 2014–2021. I especially love helping authors streamline their prose and solve tricky structural problems.
As a small child, I was fascinated by my grandfather’s homemade fiddle. I started violin lessons when I was six, and at seventeen, I heard Irish traditional music for the first time. Since then, I’ve been chasing tunes and musical knowledge. From cofounding the Blue Ridge Irish Music School in 1999 to earning my Ph.D. and working as a music professor, I delight in sharing what I’ve learned in the classroom, teaching private fiddle lessons, and through research/writing. I am especially proud of my book, Trad Nation: Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Irish Traditional Music (Wesleyan University Press 2020) and am currently working on a book for students about the experience of learning Irish traditional music. I am also a member of brightwood, a Charlottesville-based trio (fiddle, harp, flute).