I spend my days as the Development Director at the Akron-Summit County Public Library. There, I am responsible for planning, organizing, coordinating, and directing all aspects of the Library’s fund development program, including donor stewardship, sponsorship requests, fundraising campaigns, planned giving, major gifts, annual appeals, grant writing, and individual as well as corporate and foundation support. I liaison with the Library’s Council of Friends and support the Friends of Library groups that support each branch location. I also support the Executive Director’s government relations work and strategy. In my previous role as the Library’s Events Supervisor, I managed major events for the Library including groundbreakings, author series, festivals and community events. For awhile, I coordinated the Library system’s social media outlets on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, and Pinterest. Articles about my social media expertise have been published in the Akron Beacon Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Indiana Gazette, Stars and Stripes, Virgin Islands Daily News, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, The Post-Star, AmericanLibrariesMagazine.org and LibraryJournal.com.

In the past, I crafted delicious caramels and sold them at area specialty retailers, farmers’ markets, festivals and events. Made By Mike Treats caramels were voted #1 Favorite Dessert item by the readers of the Akron Empire blog in 2014.

An avid baker and photographer, I wrote a food blog that was featured on MarthaStewart.com and craftzine.com. I have presented televised cooking segments on FOX8′s New Day Cleveland.

I reside in a downtown Akron “deluxe apartment in the sky” with my husband Greg and our dog, Ted.