Q What is your role as part of the Auburn Magazine advisory council?
A There are a few goals that came up in the meeting: how to increase readership, increase people getting the magazine, and how to integrate social media more effectively into the magazine. Everybody that is on the advisory board brings their different kind of experience in publishing, or some people in advertising or just from the media world, to see if we can help in any way for the Auburn Magazine.
Q You graduated from Auburn in 1987. What are some of the biggest changes you have noticed since then?
A Well, traffic is just as bad as it always has been. It may have even gotten a little worse. Parking is still crazy, too. Physically, the campus has changed so much, with so many new buildings. The progress is great, and obviously, we have to keep expanding. The college gets bigger every year, which is a testament to how great it is. But I think that is the biggest change I've noticed around campus\0xAD--just trying to find my way around campus with it as developed as it has become.
Q What is your fondest Auburn memory?
A I have a couple. The first one is Bo Jackson. I had the privilege of being here at school when he was here and got to see him play, so that's the first one. The other one was at Auburn\0xAD--it took me a couple of years--but I figured out that journalism was the direction I wanted to go in. I always think of Auburn, and I loved the journalism department here: Mickey Logue and Jack Simms and all the great professors and instructors. That's my best memory\0xAD\0xAD--finally finding journalism at Auburn because that changed my life.
Q Looking at your career, you have worked extremely hard to get where you are. What was it like going from assistant copy editor to managing editor in four years at Child Magazine?
A It was hard work, and it was also a great team with a wonderful editor, a woman named Freddi Greenberg, who was a great mentor, and she really helped get me to have the confidence and have the experience to get to that position as managing editor. It was a magazine of a certain size, so it wasn't a huge magazine, so in many ways that helped. I was able to get involved with a lot of different departments, and I got to learn so many different things in every department, so it was a perfect foundation for me to go there as a managing editor out into other titles.
Q Before transferring to Food Network Magazine in January, you had previously worked at "Glamour," "House & Garden," "InStyle" and "Teen People." What was it like going from primarily women's fashion and style magazines to a food magazine?
A Completely different world in many good ways. It makes a little more sense to know that I own a cupcake shop in the East Village with a couple of friends, so I have some interest in food. I am not a good cook at all though, so there is some irony that I am at Food Network Magazine. My family loves to remind me of that regularly, but I am becoming a cook because of the magazine--that's how good it is. It can take someone like me and give them some ability to do it. So I've been in fashion and celebrities with "Glamour," "InStyle" and "Teen People" early on, which is an area I loved. I love that world, and I felt really fortunate to be anywhere near it.
Q You started at "Teen People" as part of the launch, which was responsible for the fastest startup of any magazine in publishing history. What was that like?
A That was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to be on the launch team of a magazine. It was priceless. There were four or five of us just starting out, and we didn't have the green light to publish yet. It was still being kicked around within the upper levels of Time Inc. The CEO of Time Inc. at the time was Don Logan, and he is an Auburn grad. So as soon as I got there, which I am not taking any credit for the support we got for "Teen People," but I have to say the first thing I did was e-mail him and say "War Eagle! War Eagle! War Eagle!" and he couldn't have been nicer, and he e-mailed me back and said "War Eagle," and every time I would see him, I would feel really special having a connection with him.
Q Tell me a little about your cupcake business, Butter Lane Cupcakes.
A My partners are two very good friends, southern girls, but not Auburn grads unfortunately. Pam Nelson and Linda Lea are my two partners in the shop. We wanted to start a business and do something around food. We immodestly thought that maybe we could make a better cupcake. There are a lot of serious cupcake shops in New York, but we thought we could offer something different. It wasn't until Pam left her job in finance right about the time the economy was about to go south. It was like the Great Depression was coming, and we just signed our life away with this lease, but so far it has turned out really well. The shop is doing well, and it has been a great adventure for us.
Q Could you also tell me a little about the scholarship you have in your name?
A My partner and I really wanted to do something for the school. It just felt like a way to pay back a little bit and give someone else an opportunity, who might not have it otherwise, to get what they wanted and to do something with journalism. The way I look at it, personally, is it is a way to say thank you to the school or the karmic world, and I feel really fortunate and grateful.
Q I have to ask. What is the best thing you ever ate?
A Well, I have to say the best thing I have ever eaten is a banana cupcake with a chocolate French butter cream icing. The second best thing I ever ate was Guthrie's, which is where I am going tomorrow for lunch.
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