Virginia started as an educator, graduating from UC Berkeley, and has come full circle in her work with EcoMotion. Along the way, she honed her language, teaching and writing skills in a number of areas:

• Junior high school teacher in Southern California
• French teacher at UCLA
• English-as-a-Second Language teacher in Freiburg, Germany
• Financial counselor and trainer for IBM in Silicon Valley
• Author of Your Retirement Benefits with Peter E. Gaudio, published 1990 by John Wiley & Sons
  

For 15 years she specialized in direct response advertising, bringing her creative and copywriting skills to bear for the benefit of, among others, AARP, American Express, Bell Atlantic, Delta Dental, Duke Power, Public Service of Indiana (PSI), US WEST Communications, Virginia Power, and Zeiss Optical. During a short tenure at The Martin Agency in Richmond, VA she won nine regional and national awards including

• Gold ECHO (Direct Marketing Association) - Client: US West
• 1 st Place Mobius Advertising Award - Client: Virginia Power
• Gold MAXI (Direct Marketing Association of Washington DC) –

Client: US West Communications

• Gold EFFIE for Advertising Effectiveness (American Marketing Association) Client: Virginia Power
• 1 st Place John Caples International Award – Client: Skytel

As President of her own firm, The Marketing Machine, Virginia has been an active participant in professional associations on both coasts, serving as a founding member of the Direct Marketing Association of Richmond, VA (1994) and as President of the American Marketing Association in Sacramento, CA (2000).

Since 2001, Virginia has focused her talents on communication and community outreach in the area of energy efficiency. While working with The Energy Coalition in Irvine, CA, she was responsible for literally hundreds of campaigns – making use of postcards, flyers, community meetings, presentations and public relations, in both English and Spanish -- to convince thousands of Southern California residents, business owners and city leaders to take action for the benefit of themselves and their communities.

Even within the non-profit sphere, her marketing campaigns continue to achieve national recognition: a video she produced with Versatile Productions (Carbondale, Colorado) was awarded a 2006 Bronze Telly Award.