Hello, Amstat News readers. I’m Olivia Brown, and I would say I am the ASA’s new graphic designer and production coordinator, but I’ve actually been here for almost nine months (and designed three of these magazines)! Time flies.

I was born in Frederick, Maryland, but I grew up somewhere in the swamps of Jersey. To be specific, my hometown of Smithville, New Jersey, is about 20 minutes outside Atlantic City and less than a mile off Highway 9, a road you may recognize from a little song called “Born to Run.” I could make about fifty more “Bruuuuuce” references, but I’ll spare you. Just give me a Philly cheesesteak and a little Darkness on the Edge of Town and I’m a happy camper (though you won’t catch me actually camping in the Pine Barrens … or anywhere else for that matter.)

I moved to Washington, DC, to attend American University in 2010 and haven’t left the DMV (DC, MD, Virginia) since. After graduating with dual degrees in graphic design and public communication, I jumped into the trade association world for a couple years (shout out to the National Confectioners Association and their legendary candy room, which is just as fabulous as it sounds). More recently, I did a stint in the music industry, designing graphics for an organization that deals with digital performance royalties. I needed a change of scene, and the ASA was just that!

I now live in Old Town Alexandria and have a 10-minute walking commute, which is great most of the time. (I am at home writing this autobiography today amidst the icy, slushy remnants of this winter’s first major snowstorm. Some of my neighbors apparently don’t know how to salt their sidewalks.)

I do freelance design work in my spare time and enjoy photography, both as a part of my job with the ASA and as a hobby. I particularly like music photography—trying to capture the energy of a live performance under changing, challenging lighting conditions is like a game to me. I like going to shows even when I’m not behind the camera, and I just love music in general—here’s a statistic for you: I somehow managed to listen to more than 106,000 minutes of music in 2018. That’s about 73 days. Whoops? Jason Isbell, Bruce Springsteen (there he is again!), and David Cook lead my playcounts. I also occasionally design animated music lyric videos.

I love traveling (usually for concerts), trying new restaurants, and finding places to wander around the DMV—walking or running, though admittedly it’s more of the former these days!

Working at the ASA has been a great change of pace so far, and I’m looking forward to visiting New Orleans for the first time to shoot photos and video at CSP 2019. Say “manchego” if you see me!