CORTEZ
CATALINA
When people say “Jack of all trades, master of none,” they always leave out the contextual rest: “Though oftentimes better than master of one.”
Turns out the cautionary tale was made up by omission.
I am a multi-passionate, multi-hyphenate operational expert with a unique roster of diversified experience across several sectors. I not only make things work, but am a mover and shaker who makes things happen.
“Luck is not a business model.”
Work History
Director of Member Services
Feb 2024 — Present
Director of Communications
August 2022 — Feb 2024
Director of Operations
June 2022 — Feb 2024
Chief of Staff
Jan 2022 — June 2022
Sales & Marketing Manager
July 2020 — June 2022
Executive Assistant
April 2019 — December 2019
Chief of Staff
April 2016 — April 2019
Executive Assistant to CEO
May 2014 — April 2016
Production
Contract Producer for Photographer and Visual Artist, Dean West.
Freelance Producer for Hill House Home
Contract Producer for Director and Cinematographer, Sam Brave
Copywriting
As the sole copywriter for the Perniciem Collection project, a collaboration between photographer Dean West and sculptor Nathan Sawaya, my role involved creating compelling copy for a thought-provoking environmental initiative. The project focuses on the theme of extinction and covers four main habitats: oceans, forests, grasslands, and the Arctic. It highlights the dire consequences of environmental neglect and loss of biodiversity, emphasizing the urgency of conservation efforts. The project involved extensive research and writing for the 19 featured endangered species. Through my writing, blending emotive storytelling with stark facts, I aimed to stir public consciousness about our rapidly changing world and the critical need for action to preserve its natural beauty.
The project is exhibited in galleries and museums across the country and donates proceeds to NGOs for environmental conservation.
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Known for their titanic size, long curling trunks, striking ivory tusks and heather grey skin so marked of time and memory, the elephant is also one of the most emotive creatures in the animal kingdom. Their emotional abilities have been said to rival even our own; engaging in impassioned displays of tenderness.
An elephant herd will travel slowly if another member is injured and incapable of keeping up, they remember and mourn a deceased loved one by returning to their grave and paying their respects, even years after their death, they play games and rejoice in obvious demonstrations of sheer delight when reunited with family - trumpeting, running and intertwining trunks.
On the other hand, they feel fright, anger and stress with the same intensity. Researchers believe that after years of killings, witnessing loved ones being slaughtered and poached as well as losing the habitat they so greatly need, has resulted in a form of chronic stress and generational PTSD.
The elephant is currently listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. In the last century, African elephants numbered close to 5 million. There are now thought to be just 415,000 remaining in the wild, less than 10 percent. Despite a global ban on the international sale of ivory in 1990, there has been a resurgence in its demand in the past decade; with 2011 seeing the highest recorded volume of illegal ivory ever seized. It is estimated that 20,000 African elephants are killed for their ivory each year. An average of 55 a day.
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Before the 1985 Commercial Whaling Moratorium, Humpback whale populations were depleted by 95 percent - relentlessly hunted, almost to extinction. Intense Soviet whaling on Antarctic feeding grounds slaughtered an average of 27,300 whales over the course of just two summers. Before the landmark ban, the whaling industry as a whole was responsible for the massacre of 2 million baleen whales.
Today, Humpback numbers are steadily increasing. Bouncing back from just 10,000 in the 1970s to 80,000 when reassessed in 2016. Their IUCN Red List status has recently been updated from Endangered to Least Concern. This remarkable improvement serves as proof of the kind of results real conservation efforts can have.
Humpback Whales are the crooners of the ocean. Troubadours of the spellbinding song omnipresent in every ocean. The friendly giants of the sea, still a mystery to even the most seasoned marine biologists. We are working to elucidate the complex series of moans, howls and cries that orchestrate the whale song echoing throughout the earth's largest bodies of waters. Sequences that reverberate for hours, up to whole days on end. Are the Humpbacks using these ballads as a way to communicate with one another? Perhaps wooing a potential mate? We have yet to confirm either of these theories and maybe never will. One thing we know for certain is that we will get no closer to understanding these incredible creatures if they cease to exist.
Please visit www.perniciemcollection.com to read more
