Photo by Tracy Chafin

SUMMARY

Award-winning journalist and former managing editor familiar with non-profit and higher education accustomed to problem solving and creativity while maintaining brand standards. Highlights include launching five weekly newspapers; building, training and managing teams; grant writing; and hands-on publishing from basic graphic design to photography.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Journalism: As managing editor of Lehigh Valley News Group, I helped select staff and launched five weekly newspapers. As editor of Blue Valley Times, I expanded content of “good news” weekly to include hard news. At each of my positions, I have trained freelancers and interns. Prolific with any type of copy including book reviews, entertainment, editorials, opinion, news, features, school, health and business articles. Well-versed with AP style. I currently review books for Hippocampus magazine.

• Editing: I have edited several weekly newspapers and supervised newsroom. Write, proofread and/or edit letters, essays, press releases, history dissertations, and fiction manuscripts in AP and Chicago style. Translate French to English. Designed, wrote and edited external and internal, print-ready newsletters for YWCA of Bethlehem (YWCA), Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group (GLVWG) and Lafayette College. Also at Lafayette College, I wrote alumni publications that went to press every six to eight weeks.

• Non-profit Public Relations: At United States Agency for International Development (USAID), I designed color flyers and logos within existing branding standards. At the YWCA of Bethlehem (YWCA), I designed and wrote modern, clean-looking brochures and event programs; revamped end-of-program celebratory event for 60 children plus families to include more activities, more media coverage and better food within existing budget; drafted annual appeal letter; created new publicity strategies such as distributing weekly press releases, updating the web site every Friday and hosting photo opportunities for local media which tripled agency presence in media. For the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group (GLVWG), I designed two-color ads and promoted regional writers conference in local and national media. At Lafayette College, I drafted press releases on student activities and pitched them to media across the country, yielding a placement rate of approximately five stories per week.

• Computer skills: Perform basic desktop publishing and graphic design in InDesign/Creative Suite, Quark and once upon a time, PageMaker. Basic Photoshop skills. Social media skills include Facebook (GLVWG, Mary Meuser Memorial Library, YWCA of Bethlehem), Twitter (creativelyangel), LinkedIn, Instagram (angelackerman), Blogger, some Google Plus. Some Dreamweaver, FrontPage and HTML. Some Filemaker database script. Utilize PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezy, iMovie and iDVD to create videos and slideshows. Maintain two blogs (on food: http://www.angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com and on writing: http://www.angelchatting.blogspot.com). Learning WordPress. Use Google Drive/docs and Drop Box.

EDUCATION

West Chester University, West Chester, PA GPA 3.8
credits toward a Masters of Arts in World History, four terms 2016-2017

Lafayette College, Easton, PA GPA 3.6
Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, 2013

Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA GPA 3.47
Bachelor of Arts in English, French minor, 1997

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

FRENCH; some Afrikaans, very minimal German, Russian, Spanish, Somali and Irish Gaelic, desire to learn Arabic

SOCIAL MEDIA

LinkedIn; Instagram: AngelAckerman; Twitter: creativelyangel; YouTube: angelackerman

RESEARCH

Honors Thesis at Lafayette College: How colonial stereotypes of Algerian Muslim inferiority influence the rights of Muslim citizens/immigrants in France today. Presented at the National Conference for Undergraduate research, April 12, 2013 at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Other interests: 20th century France, religion and citizenship, postcolonial Francophone Africa, haute couture, writing paranormal fiction

Travel: United States, Djibouti, France, Quebec, Tunisia, Yemen, Russia, Somalia