"For several years I have been webmaster for Payal Parekh, a unique, New York-based art consultant who combines her knowledge and connections in the art world with her talents as a yoga instructor.  Kula Connect is the name of her series of highly curated special events that incorporate the tenets of yoga with artwork made by a contemporary artist, where art fused with meditation creates a collective transcendent experience."

Photo from Payal Arts International website

‏"Bharati Parekh was a neighbor and friend who also happened to be a very accomplished artist. I attended her first professional art show in 2005, where I was a photographer, and when she began to further cultivate her art career, I was asked to create a brand identity and a website for her... Ms. Parekh made many donations of art and sales proceeds to benefit charities, and I produced one of two sets of greeting cards featuring her art that benefited the GYN-Oncology Fund at Baltimore's Sinai Hospital... Sadly, in 2015, she lost her own multi-year struggle with ovarian cancer."

Photo of artwork by Bharati Parekh

‏"When my friend Shelley Birnbaum prepared to open Baltimore's first all organic, eco-friendly day spa, she asked for my help. I developed early public relations, graphic design and marketing efforts that led to her business receiving "best" awards from Baltimore Magazine and the Baltimore City Paper. I later managed other graphics and multimedia projects during the transitions of her business to an exclusive skin care studio, a full retail location and online sales. The video I produced for her expansion into retail incubator space helped to raise nearly $3,000 through a crowdfunding campaign."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of ReNew products

"As a Director of Communications for Genesis HealthCare, my duties included internal communications efforts that reached 36,000 employees in over 200 locations in 13 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The company provides short-term post-acute, rehabilitation, skilled nursing and long-term care services. Our department focused on internal communications, and I assisted in managing the bi-weekly 'Big Blue' publication and developing a new intranet news page, which involved writing, editing, working with a freelance designer, and coordination with designated employees at each site. During the summer of 2007 I was chosen to accompany the company's Vice President for Government Relations on a regional tour to several states, encouraging support for (and fighting proposed cuts to) Medicare and Medicaid funding. My daily reports for the intranet were combined into a booklet that was delivered to members of Congress... Genesis has since grown into the largest skilled nursing company in the country, with approximately 500 skilled nursing centers and assisted/senior living residences in 34 states across the United States."

Photo by Brian D. Lyles of healthcare rally at the New Jersey State House in Trenton

‏"I was asked by Denise Resnik, the head of a local PR agency, to fill in for one of her employees who needed to take a leave of absence due to a family emergency. The project was to manage a new campaign that brought together a local office design and furniture company, Goodmans Interior Structures, with the Phoenix Business Journal to promote and assist Phoenix-area non-profit organizations... Years later, Goodmans Eye for the Good Guys campaign is still going strong."

Image from printed campaign material

‏"I worked for Baltimore Magazine when it was part of Capital-Gazette Communications and a sister publication to the Washingtonian Magazine. I worked closely with the Circulation Manager to oversee all subscription and newsstand distribution and sales. Projects included managing 200,000-piece direct mail campaigns and trade advertising, and co-producing radio spots."

Web image of Baltimore Magazine covers

"For my first-ever retail job, I worked at this busy card and gift shop located in the city's historic financial district, a few blocks from the Inner Harbor waterfront. Based on a New York store, this shop was a popular place for local business workers to find very unique cards, gifts, stationery, and custom gift wrapping services. After working part-time, I briefly worked there full-time for a period, and later assisted in opening and closing the store on Saturdays. (A few years later, my second retail experience was a part-time job at Kitchen Bazaar in Harborplace)... Great Impressions was later sold and eventually closed. Today the building, constructed in 1904, has returned to its original function as a tavern."

‏Photo from Maryland Historic Trust building survey

‏"My first job immediately after college was in the business side of publishing. Media Materials specialized in elementary and remedial education materials, and I was hired as the Sales Representative for the newly-acquired College Skills Center from New York, developers of the Sack-Yourman Developmental Speed Reading Course and other publications. Later I coordinated customer service for the entire company, including a unique line of hard cover remedial education textbooks, as well as a division of products acquired from Milton Bradley... The business and its publications have since changed ownership."

Brian D. Lyles photo of titles published by Media Materials

"During college I worked at Baltimore Federal, an historic local savings and loan. It was the perfect job for a student, as I worked the front desk of the headquarters on Saturdays when the bank was closed to the public, but my job was to assist overtime employees who needed access to the building. The company celebrated its 100th anniversary during my time there. All employees received a $100 bill and a commemorative plate, and a modern tower headquarters was opened, but the older building remained an active operations center... Once known as the Colonial Corner, the structure is of Federalist-style architecture, but built in the 1950s. An operations person opened the building before I arrived at 9 am, but I had keys and was the sole person who secured and closed the bank building at 5 pm. Sadly, the institution did not survive the savings and loan crisis, and the marble-floored banking space of the former headquarters is now a Walgreens."

‏Historic photo of the Baltimore Federal Savings and Loan building, downtown Baltimore