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Me

Who I am

Creator of Communities
I've done community development work for a lot of years, both just the social piece in online spaces and the more "placemaking" type stuff as a volunteer/activist. I run r/CitizenPlanners and launched Eclogiselle in Fall 2020, a development resource for small communities.
  • I have a Certificate in GIS from UC-Riverside, one of the most respected GIS programs in the world.
  • I'm a few classes short of a BS in Environmental Resource Management with a concentration in Housing.
  • I'm interested in the built environment, environmental issues, tech stuff and things where those intersect.

Writer
I run a whole bunch of websites on a wide variety of topics and I have worked as a freelance writer for years. I also edit resumes sometimes.

Homelessness SME
My knowledge of the subject comes from a college class at SFSU called Homelessness and Public Policy, 5.7 years of sleeping in a tent myself and years of writing about the topic.

"Health Nut"
In my mid-thirties, I was diagnosed with a serious genetic disorder. In defiance of all expectations, I've been getting healthier ever since my diagnosis in May 2001.
  • I'm currently drug free. (But I'm not anti drug. Instead, I'm pro health.)
  • My condition is managed with diet and lifestyle.
  • I'm pretty persistently interested in things like genetic research, gut microbiome and "bio hacking."
Miscellaneous
These are a few details that have strongly shaped my identity.
  • I have a multi-cultural background -- German/Irish/Cherokee -- and I never quite fit in anywhere.
  • I'm a former military wife and homeschooling mom of 2xE kids.
  • After that, I spent a few years as a single mom with a corporate job at a Fortune 500 company.
  • While homeschooling my kids, I was briefly the Director of Community Life for The TAG Project during a time when they were trying to become an officially incorporated non-profit. This meant I was the lead moderator and in charge of diversity initiatives, among other things.
  • In spite of being American, I have been car free for over a decade.


Last Updated October 14, 2020.

Popular posts from this blog

A Lean, (Ever)Green Machine: Website Tips for Small Shops

I've been making little websites to serve up information on various topics for close to two decades. I'm basically a one-woman shop, so my websites have to be lean, evergreen, low cost and low maintenance to make any sense at all.

I currently live in a small town and I sometimes attend public meetings where people are enamored of shiny tech but don't know how to use it. They get all envious of projects and talk in glowing terms about "Wouldn't it be GREAT if we did something like that?!" and I bite my tongue and don't say "You have no idea what on earth you are talking about. You have neither the resources nor the expertise to do a project like that."

Those experiences inspired me to write this post. I would love to help people in the small town where I live to establish an effective web presence, but I really am going to need to do a lot of educating if that is ever going to happen.

Most locals have no idea how to make a website that…
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Me. Woodward Park, Fresno, CA. January 2016.

My favorite pic of me that's sort of recent-ish. (No, you aren't lost. As of June 1, 2020, DoreenTraylor.com redirects here.)
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Merged

Until a few days ago, this site -- doreenmichele.blogspot.com -- was my personal blog and I had a separate site at DoreenTraylor.com that I thought of as my professional site where I had information on how to hire me to do resume work and the like. About three days ago, I fairly spontaneously redacted all the personal blog posts from this site and set about merging the two sites into one.

Now, DoreenTraylor.com redirects here. Most of the content was moved over from the other site. The only content I kept from my personal blog were the pages called Me, My Websites and References.

I also took design elements from both. I kept the pink and white template from my personal blog but added a pinned (permanent) Featured Post with the same photo from the other site. I also substantially edited a lot of the content from both sites to make everything more polished.


DoreenTraylor.com


Updated DoreenMichele.blogspot.com

I have no idea if I will end up making a new personal blog elsewhere, b…
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