Lisa Milbrand

Bloomfield, NJ USA
18 Years Experience

Professional Experience

Service stories are my strength: I excel at taking complex subjects and explaining them in sharply written sentences (turned in right on time, of course). I'm a lifestyles guru, publishing pieces on every topic from parenting to entertaining, personal finance to travel. I've watched master chefs create wedding cakes, interviewed Anne Rice, detailed my experiences adopting my daughters from China, and reported on how to properly imbibe vodka in Russia and cachaca in Brazil. I've developed an expertise in content strategy as well, helping advertising agencies develop new sites, newsletter concepts and other web content for companies like Kodak, IBM, LG and Time Warner.

Expertise

Content Editor (online) 8 YearsEditor 17 YearsWriter 18 Years

Specialty

Family, Children & Teenagers 8 YearsLifestyle 18 YearsWomen's Issues 18 Years

Industries

Advertising agency 6 YearsMagazine - Large Consumer/National magazines 8 YearsOnline/new media 8 Years

Media Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

  • Techlicious.com (3-5)
  • The Knot (3-5)
  • Waterfront Media (10+)
  • iVillage.com (10+)
  • Edge (10+)
  • FamilyVacationCritic.com (6-10)
  • The Bump (3-5)
  • Meredith Corporation (10+)
  • Parents (10+)
  • Destination Weddings & Honeymoons (3-5)
  • Wainscot Media (3-5)

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

  • Bed Bath and Beyond (10+)
  • Ogilvy (6-10)
  • Organic (6-10)
  • UnitedHealthCare (1-2)

Associations

AvantGuild

Other Work History

Former top editor at Modern Bride's regional bridal magazines; lifestyles editor (and catalog copywriter) for a housewares commerce site; held staff positions at Modern Bride and Women.com

Computer Skills

InCopy, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, CMS, Omnigraffle

Equipment

Mac laptop with usual programs

References

available upon request

General

Daughters in Demand
(Adoptive Families 3/1/2006)
If given a choice, adoptive parents overwhelmingly opt to adopt girls. I explored some of the reasons why they make this choice, and the impact of their decisions on the adoptive community and the boys who are left behind.
14 Secrets to Potty Success
(Parenting 3/4/2009)
We tried begging, bribing, pleading and threatening, and nothing could get my daughter potty trained—until I took the sage advice of the experts I consulted for this story.
Orphan Movie: Harmful to Adoptive Kids & Parents?
(iVillage 7/24/2009)
The Orphan movie preview presented a pretty nasty view of adoption—and kept popping all over TV. I wrote a quick commentary on the problems I had with the flick.
Can You Build a Better Baby?
(Parents 8/15/2007)
I came up with the idea for this piece after reading a short magazine writeup about exercise during pregnancy giving a baby an IQ boost. When I looked up the actual study, it was done on mice--and it wasn't clear that the results could be extrapolated to humans. This story shows how the media often exaggerates the results from research studies to create a good headline.
How to Read a Nutrition Label Quickly
(Arthritis Today 11/20/2006)
Advice on how to find the healthiest foods, based on those always-complicated labels.
Special Report: Adoption and the Economy
(Adoptive Families 6/1/2009)
Based on a survey of Adoptive Families readers, this article explored how the economic downturn has affected potential parents' abilities to fund their adoptions.
The Bigger the Boat, the Bigger the Splash
(Budget Travel 3/13/2006)
This heavily reported charticle previews the latest innovations on 2006's brand-new cruise ships.