Meet Aren

(Like Karen, Without the K)

Some people find their calling. Others back into it through a series of increasingly interesting detours. Aren Tovey is firmly in the second camp, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

She started early. Language arts and literature were always her territory, the place where things clicked without effort. That ease with words carried her through school and into teaching, and then further still. The skills were never the question; the purpose was.

What came next surprised everyone, including her. At 31, she enlisted in the United States Navy, trained as a Mass Communication Specialist at the Defense Information School, and discovered that the things she had always done naturally, writing, photography, design, storytelling, had a name and a discipline behind them. The Navy didn't change who she was. It gave her a framework for it.

Now based in Copperas Cove, Texas, she works as a content strategist with a background that spans public affairs, editorial production, and instructional design. She builds content that translates complex information into plain language, because clarity is a form of respect for your audience. When she's not doing that, she's probably reading, painting, crocheting something ambitious, or enjoying what she calls a mexi-thai-ranean diet.

The work is on the next page. This is just who's behind it.