my story

I took my first flight at two weeks old in a Piper Cherokee Six. My mom and dad were the pilots. We were definitely your typical “General Aviation family.” You probably know the type. Throughout my childhood, I spent many Saturday mornings flying out in search of the best chocolate chip pancakes or infamous $100 hamburger, watching the Blue Angels at the Quonset Air Show, visiting family far away–and I can’t count the amount of SUN ‘n FUN Spring Break tee shirts I’d collected over the years. It’s such a privilege to have grown up surrounded by the Aviation community. I’m the luckiest girl in the world for that and for how it would impact the rest of my life.

I started freelancing in high school–designing book covers, creating promotional videos for my school district and its tech department, editing performance footage from a local jazz club, taking product photos for an energy bar startup–taking on any project that would allow me to be creative and, of course, earn some cash. I even took a few flight lessons while I was at it.

My whole world changed in college when I started contracting for an aerospace company (shoutout Whelen Aerospace Technologies)! The idea of combining my love for aviation with my creative side hadn’t dawned on me until it was right in front of me. I had just received an offer from a prestigious New Haven Ad Agency and I was debating whether to accept or reject it. Long story short–I rejected it, took a huge leap of faith, became my own boss, and never looked back.

I graduated from the University of Connecticut’s School of Fine Arts with a BFA in Digital Media and Design in May of 2020. My Fine Arts education gave me a strong foundation in design, visual communication, storytelling, collaboration, and critique. My degree culminated with my BFA thesis: “Why We Fly,” a short film celebrating women in aviation. Since its release in April 2020, it’s been showcased by film festivals around the world and has won several awards.

After finishing college, I still had a dream I had yet to accomplish: earning my Pilot’s License. Ever since I could remember, I wanted to fly. I’d always been a passenger and I’d taken some lessons here and there, but after the COVID-19 Pandemic and spending so many days cooped up in my house, I was fueled with a new fire to earn my wings. I was staying in the Daytona Beach Area–the mecca for flight training–and I found Captain Paul’s Flight School and Tailwheel Academy at Massey Ranch Airpark. A few years prior, my grandfather’s friend took me for a flight in his 1942 Piper J-3 Cub. Out of the hundreds of flights I’d taken in my life, that one really stood out in particular. It was the first time I’d experienced the freedom of tailwheel flying. It was truly “love at first flight.” The idea of learning to fly in a taildragger excited me to my core and the rest is history. 

I fell in love with the art of stick and rudder flying while I trained in an American Champion Citabria with the legendary East-Coast-Tailwheel-Guru, Captain Paul Santopietro. He really taught me to fly. With all of the technology we have today, learning to fly in a taildragger seems obsolete, complicated, and to some, even dangerous. There’s a lot more that can go wrong. Insurance is more expensive and as a result, not many student pilots have the opportunity to complete their primary flight training in a taildragger and build their stick and rudder skills from day one. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the experience and training to learn “the old way.” I didn’t know it was possible to have that much fun in an airplane. Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but I hope someday it will become more normal to learn in taildraggers again. 

Stick and rudder flying is an art form, which is part of the reason I decided to name my business “Stick and Rudder Media.” There’s something deeply meditative and beautiful about the dancing of feet on the rudder pedals, the need for precision, the off-airport activities, the diverse array of aircraft to fly, and only the freedom flying tailwheel can bring. My creative space runs on stick and rudder skills, too. I am fully hands-on with each story I tell, design I create, photograph I shoot, and ––––––. I can’t rely on autopilot to navigate my clients through the ever-changing digital space. Like hands and feet working together during a gusty crosswind approach, I collaborate with my clients to bring their unique vision to life in a visually beautiful way.