I was born in the late 1960s in the heart of Silicon Valley (before it was called that). My father worked as an electrical engineer for IBM and my mother worked for the Bell Telephone Company before retiring to raise six children. I inherited the computing and engineering skills from Dad and the baking skills and eccentricity from Mom. Disclaimer: any assertiveness or extroversion on my part are products of my birth order (the fifth child) and from my British and French ancestry.

Growing up in the 1980s for me meant obsession with Lady Diana (who became Princess Diana—and we all know how that turned out) and Tom Selleck (“Magnum P.I.”) posters plastered on my bedroom wall. I bought vinyl LPs from Tower Records and recorded my favorite songs on cassettes to play on my  Sony Walkman. Summers were spent endlessly playing the Atari console (Frogger was a favorite) and I witnessed in real time the debut of MTV in August 1981. That was the same summer my father died. At the age of 48. His death sent me on a life trajectory I never would have anticipated.

Self-sufficiency began at age 11 with multiple babysitting gigs followed by a brief and painful stint at telemarketing at age 12. I ascended to summer copyeditor for a local chamber of commerce at age 14 and by 15 I was stocking shelves and wrapping gifts at a stationery store. Then I hit my stride waiting tables at 18, and that would fund my love of learning (through formal education) for the next eight years. Still, I had side hustles to make ends meet: a clerical job at an off shoot of the public defender’s office and even attending “checker school” to be a unionized cashier for Safeway grocery stores. I was also a housekeeper for a local bed and breakfast inn. I loved getting paid to learn new skills and meet different kinds of people.

I most likely earned the label of academic at age 23 when I landed a college teaching assistantship to fund my master’s degree program. Despite my impeccable skills at bagging groceries and working 10 tables at once I learned to love teaching almost as much as learning. The two go hand in hand.

My academic rap sheet curriculum vitae includes BA (1992) and MA (1994) degrees in Communication Studies from San Jose State University and a PhD (2002) in Media Ecology from New York University. During the mid 1990s I worked as a media educator and technology consultant in the New York City Schools when Mayor Guiliani had thrown personal computers in the classroom and expected teachers to actually use them. Something new called the World Wide Web was catching on and served as fodder for my first book (Rethinking Technology in Schools, 2009). My early academic research focused on the uses of technology to renew schooling and promote democratic practices particularly through media literacy education and teacher preparation. These were exciting times living in the East Village and exploring New York City.

After finishing my course work I went back to California to teach for a year while ABD. In 1999 I unexpectedly got married and then within a span of 18 months gave birth to not 1 but 2 children. I finally gave birth to my dissertation and earned the PhD in 2002. Following the dot com bust of 2001, my little family relocated to New Jersey where I joined the faculty of Montclair State University as Dr. Vanessa Domine, assistant professor of educational technology. While working towards tenure and promotion, I distracted myself by giving birth to 2 more children (4 years apart). So, I did a bunch of fun mom stuff and a bunch of fun academic stuff and together they balanced out. It also inspired a second book (Healthy Teens, Healthy Schools: How Media Literacy Education Can Renew Education in the United States, 2015) is a road map for educators and community leaders to proactively reposition education as a means to achieve health rather than the sacrifice of adolescent health for the sake of academics. I hope my offspring read it someday. Actually, I hope anyone reads it someday.

While I have yet to receive an award for motherhood, I was honored in 2013 by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) with the Meritorious Service award for her service as Vice President of the Board of Directors, co-editor of the Journal of Media Literacy Education, and two-time conference program chair (2009-2013). I remain active on numerous editorial boards for education, media, technology, and health media-related academic journals.

I earned tenure in 2007 and promotion to full professor in 2016. I briefly chaired the Department of Secondary and Special Education in the College of Education and Human Services at Montclair State University (2014-2016). Despite enjoying my work with incredibly smart colleagues in that college, I jumped academic ships for the burgeoning School of Communication and Media (now a college). It was there I founded/directed the COMM+MEDIA Research Collaboratory (2016-2022) and taught courses in communication research methods, media criticism, media ecology, television and culture, children’s television, doing media literacy, food media literacy, and media permaculture.

In hindsight it makes sense that I wrote my third academic book (Navigating Media Literacy: A Pedagogical Tour of Disneyland, 2020) during messy divorce. This book pays homage to the creativity of communication and media arts. I wanted to capture the attention of those who incorrectly assume media literacy is mere criticism; it can also be creative and constructive while also pulling back the veil on the Happiest Place on Earth.

I happily relinquished my personal social media accounts in 2020 to experiment with the Slow Media movement. In 2021, I earned a certificate in permaculture design and bought a 4-acre homestead (Greenwood Acres New Jersey) to apply principles of regenerative homesteading where I steward 2 flocks of chickens, a herd of goats, and a litter of pigs. I also own a cottage kitchen. This all may be a response to an empty nest or perhaps a continuation of a lifetime of enjoying hard work and learning new things. And maybe the realization that there is more to life than any single profession can provide.

In 2024 I married my best friend, Jason, who I met on a dating app (okay, maybe I didn’t relinquish all of my social media accounts). We plan to grow old together on our 100+ acre mountaintop somewhere—someday.

But for now: live, love, learn, create, and repeat.