I think the way I am supposed to do this is in third person.
“Jeffrey likes long walks on the beach.”
And I do, believe me, I do.
But I feel like writing about myself in the third person sounds…narcissistic? And like any good narcissist I can hide it better than that, so this is going to be one on one, me to you.
Hi! I’m Jeffrey Dewhurst, the new editor at the AMSGazette. I work at the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, in the Communications and Outreach Division (S&T, COD). We really call it COD, like the fish. I am a Writer/Editor, so if this is terrible, well, don’t tell anyone.
I’m originally from California, and I grew up at Lake Tahoe. It’s beautiful there, but if you want to actually do anything in your life besides look at trees and shovel snow, you must leave.
So I moved to San Diego, where I managed to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in theater. This made me a decent performer and qualified me to wait tables anywhere in America. I ended up as an actor/director/producer/waiter/bar manager in New York City. I even managed a nightclub near the Flatiron building.
As we grow our dreams evolve and I discovered that my new passion was having health insurance and not needing a roommate. I made the transition to working in offices and soon was the Executive Assistant to a Vice Chair and member of the Board of Directors at the accounting firm of Deloitte. That’s a story, but I digress.
Let’s skip a bit, we all have stuff to do, right?
Time passed, people married and died…I got married too, but I am mostly alive. I found myself as the Office Manager for a small software development company in Bethesda, founded and run by one of the people who actually invented the internet. He had a crazy thing he would do. When people would leave the company, he would give me their job and a raise. I ended up doing a lot of the accounting for the company and handling our government contracts with DHS. When he closed the company, I went to work at DHS as a SETA (kind of a technical assistant), in the Cybersecurity Division. About five years ago, I moved over into COD.
My wife Bobbie and I have two teenagers, a tuxedo cat, and a ninety-pound labrador mix. Mixed with what, we don’t know, but whatever it was, it was large. I also make mosaics.
If your take-away from this is that in order for me to have done all of that I must be really old, then we can’t be friends.
In all seriousness, AMSG is a special place, and I feel very lucky to work with the amazing people here. Thank you to Jim and the whole management team for creating and nurturing a company that lives up to its ideals.
Written by: Jeffrey Dewhurst