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Donna in Pebble Beach

Contact

• Website: http://www.chasingcleanair.com
• Email: donna@gogreenpr.com

Biography

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Reporter, Forbes Magazine
Reporter/Stringer, “Good News Show” CNN

Ghostwriter, Risk to Win: A Woman’s Guide to Success published by Macmillan.
Novelist, Chasing Normal

Public Relations Professional representing companies in technology, healthcare, and consumer goods industries.

Clean Air Advocate

EDUCATION

Masters of Professional Writing, University of Southern California

Bachelor of Arts, Literature, University of California at San Diego

TODAY

I use my communication skills to promote businesses and issues working to safeguard our environment and health.

I am a passionate voice for cleaning our air.

I testified for stricter ozone standards at California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings, which contributed to stricter regulations.

I have close ties within the financial, consumer, and trade press. And regular contact with health and environmental NGOs in order to stay aware in our ever evolving landscape.

Upon graduation from UCSD, I escaped vanilla San Diego, and headed for thirty-one flavors Washington, DC.

Hanging out at the National Press Building, two blocks from the White House, I practiced the look and pose of a reporter.

It worked.

One day, a dark-skinned man, who said he was from Oman, invited me to an international press briefing. Elevator up. Eleventh floor. Scribble. Scribble.

I scribbled my way into the national and international bureaus of magazines, newspapers, and television networks, meeting with editors and news directors.

“I want to be a reporter,” I said to anyone who’d listen.

And to my own surprise, I morphed into a reporter at Forbes Magazine. I wrote for the Trends column.

I went to press conferences, ate at the National Press Club, schmoozed with powerful men (mostly), saw my pieces published, and my name in the masthead.

In time, I became the Washington, DC stringer for CNN’s “Good News Show”. Ted Turner flirted with me, and everyone else. I made many friends at CNN. They hired bright people from around the country. People at CNN smiled more than my previous job.

We enjoyed barbeques and boating on the Chesapeake Bay.

Oh how I love the Chesapeake!

It’s gratifying to get a recommendation from a former employer, or, better, a client. My Forbes supervisor recommended me to ghostwrite a book, Risk to Win: A Woman’s Guide to Success.

I love to write. Always have. Still do. It opens my mind and creativity, and is a wonderful channel for flow.

I relocated to California when I fell in love with a man all wrong for me. What does a woman in her 20s know? Before I could say, What am I doing in Tinseltown breathing smog? I was out of that relationship and on the PR fast track.

It turned out those Washington jobs and contacts had value.

To balance my life, I earned a Master’s in Professional Writing from USC, danced, hiked, got into nature photography, and bought a Yamaha piano, where I lose myself in notes of the Masters, playing Beethoven to modern romantic interludes.

Nature, beauty, and integrity are important to me.

Slowly but surely, I’m seeking a cleaner place to live. I researched several areas for quality of life, clean air, and accessibility to an airport.

After years in mostly beautiful Los Angeles, I’d like to move beyond traffic jams and smoggy skylines to breathe clean air.

I created this blog to share stories from the road, my life, and business interests.