I'm a freelance writer with experience creating a variety of web content like blogs, podcasts, newsletters, and SEO content. If there was life before new media, it was spent on the radio and writing for magazines.
My Involement in CJD-Related Issues I'm very interested in finding the cure for CJD, the disease that killed my mother in 2004. Naturally, I write a great deal about it. I've written an article for Veg News Magazine about why I became a vegan after her death. CJD is short for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease -- the human form of mad cow disease. You can learn more about it by visiting the CJD Foundation's website.
Helping Journalists Understand & Cover CJD-Related Issues I
also help other journalists write stories on CJD by providing sources
to interview and resources on all kinds of research because there is a
lot available. I recently edited the article Prions: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies and Dental Transmission Risk Assessment by Janice Hamilton for CDA Journal, Vol 35, No 1. When
a story about "mad cow disease" hits the media, I am always available
to help journalists obtain sources, find accurate information, and ask
the right questions of experts. Please e-mail me to find out more. I'm happy to answer any of your questions.
My Writing About CJD Online I wrote a couple articles for the Paradise Valley Community College Puma Press:
Jeff Schwan died in his 20s of CJD right here in America. His mother and aunt are friends of mine.
My mother died of the E200K mutation of fCJD in 2004 at the age of 56, the youngest to die of CJD in her family to my knowledge.
Volunteer Work I Do I volunteer for the CJD Medical Education project run by the CJD Foundation, which means I was fortunate enough to have a few minutes to speak to the physicians at Barrow Neurological Institute earlier this year when Dr. Sejvar of the CDC made a presentation. I spoke of the importance of encouraging families to use our National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC), which provides free autopsies to families with a suspected case of CJD.
