Poet :: Storyteller :: Pragmatic Daydreamer
Hello!
I'm Merick Alsobrooks (they/them), a poet and writing professional living in Atlanta. I currently work in internal communications for an international law firm.
I spent my MFA years developing my creative craft as a student of writing, with a focus in poetry and creative nonfiction; my pedagogy and teaching philosophy as a professor of both creative and compositional writing; and my editing, proofreading, and project management skills through my editorial assistantship with the Flannery O'Connor Review.
I've also worked with event planning & hosting, social media & graphic design, and video editing in support of the Martin Lammon Reading Series put on by the graduate MFA students at Georgia College.
Check out some of the work I've done on my Portfolio page!
Work Experience
Ogletree Deakins, Atlanta, GA — Internal Communications Coordinator
June 2022 - Present
Strategize with departments, teams, and offices across an international firm to develop internal communication plans for various projects, programming, and system changes.
Craft and distribute multi-channel internal communications for over 2,400+ employees, including emails, intranet posts, PDFs, submission forms, and infographics.
Develop and execute quarterly firm-wide communication measurement with a focus on actionable feedback to further streamline content, guidelines, and workflows.
Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA — Professor
August 2020 - May 2022
Designed and taught introductory composition and creative writing courses, from conception to deliverables, including syllabi, reading lists, course calendars, assignment sheets, and lesson plans.
Emphasized skill building, curiosity, revision, and improvement in my classrooms to help hundreds of students build a strong foundation for their future university classes and careers.
During the ‘20-‘21 school year, taught fully online utilizing Zoom and GCSU’s online portal. Each class had a synchronous and asynchronous component, and all lectures were edited and uploaded to our virtual classroom, resulting in a 91% pass rate for the class despite student illnesses and burnout.
Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA — Editorial & Circulation Assistant
August 2019 - May 2022
Actively corresponded with over 100 contributors and referees throughout the submission, peer-review, acceptance, and revision/edit process to ensure that all requirements were met by summer and fall publication deadlines.
Prepared 200+ pages (including accepted articles, book reviews, graphics, front- and back-of-journal pages, etc.) to match journal style and formatting guidelines.
Managed junior assistants, including training and delegation of daily office needs related to journal circulation and office upkeep.
Overhauled our employee handbook, including updating guidelines based on older software and reimagining different processes from scratch, to create a training document that can be used without direct guidance.
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL — Records Management Analyst
August 2018 - August 2019
Managed sensitive information for thousands of constituents while maintaining the accuracy of their information through various software and artifacts.
Identified database issues and addressed them myself or with my team based on the complexity and severity of the issue. Solving these issues helped with fundraising campaigns put on by the university.
Introduced and implemented new ideas to improve process efficiency, including saving our team an hour or more each morning by adjusting how we approached sorting through obituaries to mark constituents as deceased.
Education
Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, ‘22 — MFA
Master of Fine Arts in creative writing with a focus in poetry and pedagogy.
The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, ‘18 — BA
Interdisciplinary studies with a focus on chemical engineering and English/writing.