Ever since I learned to read, I wanted to be a writer. The worlds the authors created, whether factual or fictional, seemed magical to me, and I wanted to create that same magnetic art for others to enjoy.

I earned an honorable mention in my first personal essay contest at age 9, which gave me the chance to read an excerpt of it on the local radio station. That experience is probably what first made me consider journalism. Well, that and the ability I was developing to ask strangers—tourists to Mammoth Cave National Park, where I lived from the time I was 5 until I graduated from high school at 17—probing questions about their lives and interests.

I ended up working for 21 years at such media outlets as CNN.com, The Weather Channel, MSNBC, NBC, and a slew of affiliates nationwide. I also freelanced for Essence magazine. It must have been a subliminal message from my mother, a former educator, that made me want to teach at the university level and conduct workshops at conferences. In order to do that, I earned an MFA from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.