Our Team
Our team consists of an interesting group of writers, artists, film makers and do-gooders who strive to make our world a better place.
Tracy Hepler is the Co-Founder and Creative Director of your daily thread and the contributor for Active Lifestyle. She has a degree from UC Santa Barbara in Anthropology and Communications and has taught English in Spain, sold pub crawls to tourists on Las Ramblas, and worked as a PA for TV and documentary films. She is a resident of the Fairfax District and enjoys writing, traveling, painting, cooking, learning about green living, and exploring everything LA has to offer. When she grows up she wants to be a documentary film maker and host a show that focuses on sustainable eco-friendly travel (ala Anthony Bourdain style). Follow her L.A. adventures on facebook, twitter, and the Huffington Post.
..
Lauren Johanson is the Co-Founder of your daily thread and serves as the Business Director. Born and raised on a sheep farm in New Jersey, she transplanted to SoCal as a kid. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Richmond (Virginia) with a degree in Leadership Studies and Political Science. Through her studies, she became interested in issues of social justice and sustainable development. She continued to explore these concepts through her year-long travels around the world and then through her work promoting Fair Trade at Ten Thousand Villages. She is also the co-founder of Chivas Skin Care along with her mother Donna. They hand make all-natural skin care products using Fair Trade Shea Butter and fresh goat milk (that they milk daily). She enjoys yoga, salsa dancing, hiking and throwing parties. Her favorite boards games are “Catch Phrase” and “Time’s Up.”
……
Danielle Davis is YDT’s Green Living Contributor and Editor from Silver Lake. Danielle became a simple, green liver by way of reading Barbara Kingsolver and shopping at the farmer’s market with her good pal, Anna (and was first dubbed a treehugger by her family long before then). She became a writer by making up stories in her room as a kid. Always with one foot in the environment and one in the world of writing, Danielle has worked as an educator at TreePeople and taught English to junior highers and college students. She writes an eco/conscious living blog at www.lessismorebalanced.com and has an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing. Currently she’s got a stack of children’s book manuscripts connecting the youngest readers to the natural world and is working on another stack of pages that will be her first novella. Get a taste of her “less is more” philosophy in a recent article.
Connie Wu is a SoCal native, but she’ll never get used to L.A. traffic. A proud Bruin, she studied Communications and Sociology at UCLA and works currently in online marketing and freelance copywriting. She likes nothing more than curling up with a good book in a comfortable chair, but she also enjoys discovering new and delicious foodstuffs, obsessing over shoes, and zealously playing Scrabble on her iPhone. You can witness some of Connie’s recent shoe obsessions at her online shopping blog, FileUnderFashion.com and on YDT’s Food and Fashion Section.
Alissa Pittenger is the Contributing Beauty Editor and Art Director of Your Daily Thread. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, clean and sustainable living are always on her mind. Eating a “hippie diet” and tending to the earth was just a normal part of life. Her family encouraged her artistic gifts at an early age which took her to a Visual Arts degree from the University of Washington (Seattle). Today she is a Senior Interactive Designer with clients ranging from entertainment movie sites to online green magazines! With a passion for beautiful things in nature and daily life, her once hobby now has a home on YDT. She seeks out the latest in eco-beauty products (not trends) both locally and abroad. Her approach and creative eye brings our readers the freshest in eco-glam and health. To view her design work, visit her online portfolio at: www.alissapittenger.com
Pooja Jhobalia is an intern at YDT and currently employed by the City of Irvine in their Fiscal and Environmental Programs division. Ambitious and creative, she holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and a Bachelor’s in Environmental Sciences from UC Riverside. Her parents migrated from India, making her the first American generation in her family. She is captivated by her cultural heritage, but enjoys being around a world of diversity. She has embraced traveling, reading and spending time with her family and friends to be her most favorite things. She is enamored with European chic design and shopping for the next item of sparkle and flair for her wardrobe.
Vanessa Crocini is an Italian documentary filmmaker. She graduated from University of Bologna and was an exchange student at UC Santa Barbara where she met YDT co-founder Tracy Hepler. After working on Italian movie sets as a Production Coordinator, she came back to California to attend UCLA Extension Program where she focused on the documentary films. She directed and edited a popular web series called High School Love for the Italian Bonsai TV. She has also shot spec commercials for Current TV and has worked on music videos as Production Coordinator and Second Unit Director. She has recently come back from Rwanda where she worked on a documentary about the genocide. Currently she is editing her documentary about a senior citizen gated community in Orange County. She enjoys traveling, taking pictures, eating delicious international food and of course watching documentary films to discover new places and stories from around the world. She became interested in environmental issues after watching the powerful documentaries Addicted to Plastic and An Inconvenient Truth.
Sarah Y. McClure is an L.A.-based freelance writer keeping on the pulse with the latest trends and styles of green living, health & beauty and lifestyle. In her field, she has had the unique opportunity to meet a myriad of people in her community and craft topics ranging from raw food chefs, the country’s first solar-powered car wash, eco interior designers, sustainable and local fashion, skate company CEOs, vegan fitness experts and health benefits of wine, to locally made soda by an eight-year-old boy. Her writing has appeared in Ideal Bite, Pasadena Magazine, Tasting Table, Whole Life Times and Racked LA, among others. With her long-standing interest in holistic, green living, she is thrilled to be a contributor with Your Daily Thread, where she hopes to prompt others about good-for-you-and-the-planet standards with green tips, how-tos and articles. Follow her on twitter and send her your thoughts at www.wordsbysarahmcclure.com.
Sara Roderick is an eco-friendly, animal loving, fashion obsessed (admittedly, her one true vice), YDT intern and “Green in L.A.” blogger with a Valley Girl disposition. Having lived in Los Angeles for her entire 20 something years, she’s come to enjoy the ins and outs of the city. Sara graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.A. in Psychology, but is now pursuing a career in Journalism. She lives for: Farmers’ Markets; chic bars; tasty restaurants; and has recently been trying to master the culinary art of gluten-free baking –chocolate fudge brownies, here she comes!
..
Jaclyn Mullen is a true “Jac-lyn of All Trades.” From acting to business consulting to writing, she tackles any and every job possible due to her curious nature. Originally from Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C, she attended the University of Miami on a Vocal Performance scholarship. While majoring in Music Business, Jaclyn was classically trained as an Opera singer and served as the Music Entertainment Industry Student Association Public Relations officer. After graduation, she ventured into a career in Human Resources/Risk Management Consulting before relocating to Los Angeles in 2006. She hopes to one day have a star on the walk of fame. In the meantime, you can catch her marketing several of her clients including Jenny Wax, a Skin Care Studio in Santa Monica. Between promoting her business and commercial and movie shoots, she enjoys dancing, training for marathons, volunteering, and traveling.
