2007 | ::ABOUT ME::

Personal Highlights

Pittershawn was born in Kingston, Jamaica, W.I., migrating to the United States in 1972 with her mother at the age of five. During her years in Jamaica, she lived atop the sultry hills of Stonehenge in the Parish of St. James, where Montego Bay is the capital. She is the middle child of three, with her incredible sisters holding a special place in her heart. She grew up on the border of Westchester and the Bronx, spending the next 32 years there. She attended high school in Co-op City and college in New Rochelle. Initially, she had a deep fondness for law and began to pursue it during her first years of college. Her love for the arts would later sway her, eventually leading her to writing, a hobby she fostered from childhood.

Pittershawn's interest in the arts began with her love for lyrics and sound...music. She would sing in various shows in high school and college, eventually traveling to then, West Germany, for military duty in the United States Army. While there, she performed in numerous stage plays such as Rock Roll and Remember and the Dreamgirls where she played Michelle Morris, living the dual life of an artist and soldier from December 1988 to February 1991. After having her first child in Frankfurt, Germany, she decided to end her military duties to raise her daughter in a stable environment and subsequently left Germany, a place she grew to adore. She was honorably discharged from the military and shortly thereafter decided to pursue a degree in the arts.

Pittershawn also plays the piano and continues to sing every chance she gets. She enjoys reading, writing, cooking, crocheting and graphic designing. When no one is looking, she is usually crouched in a corner reading such magazines as National Geographic, Archaeology, Natural History and Smithsonian. And books such as The Elegant Universe, The Story of the Moors in Spain and Black Athena. Shhh. No one must know.

After 30 years in the North Bronx, New York, she has relocated to Long Pond, Pennsylvania, which is in the plush hills of the Pocono's mountains  Although she still has a home in the Bronx, she prefers the quiet and tranquility of the Poconos. Her two daughters are the center of her universe and her spiritual teachers. Without them, she is mute and void. With them, she is everything; words, sound, light and peace.

Professional Highlights

Pittershawn is a freelance writer, journalist, speech writer, copywriter and copyeditor who has worked with Oprah Magazine, Essence, Black Enterprise, Black Voices, Fierce, The Source, Kuji: The Lifestyle Guide to Self Enrichment and NV Magazine (New Vision in Business), as well as the Chicago Defender, QBR The Black Book Review and the Harlem Book Fair, in positions ranging from freelance writer and fact-checker to researcher, editor and associate publisher. Her journalistic skills allowed her to skillfully conduct flawless research and masterful interviews. Since then she has published dozens of articles covering business, literary and general topics.

Pittershawn has done extensive copy writing and copyediting for corporate clients, covering marketing campaign collateral, press releases, and speech writing for awards and publicity events. She has also copyedited for academic clients, covering course instruction and seminars, lectures, interviews, articles, performances and exhibits.   Her client list includes L'Oreal's Soft Sheen Carson and Fathom, which covered such institutions as The British Library, American Film Institute, The British Museum, Cambridge University Press, Columbia University, London School of Economics, RAND, Natural History Museum, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Victoria & Albert Museum, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Science Museum and New York Public Library and many others. She has prepared effective grant proposals and business letters and has served as ghostwriter for the Director of the National Brotherhood of Skiers.

She taught journalism and writing on the weekends to freshman high school students at Hostos Community College through a program run by Young Athletes, Inc. (Y.A.I.)/GEAR UP.

She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc - Gamma Xi Zeta Chapter and co-chair of Iona College's Multicultural Alumni Chapter.

Pittershawn earned her B.A. in English from Iona College where she graduated with honors, and was inducted into Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society. She is currently working on her thesis for her Masters in Journalism at the same institution and will soon begin studies towards an M.F.A. in Writing.