About Shamontiel

Writer ~ Editor ~ Dog Lover

Shamontiel (pronounced Shə mawn T L) Latrice Vaughn is a full-time, freelance editor and writer. From 2014 to 2022, her primary freelance jobs were via Upwork. Although still active on the site, majority of her 2023 clients are independent clients outside of the platform. The Chicago native has 18 years of combined publishing experience in journalism; print and online editing; website building and editing; social media marketing; and four years in mid-level management. Although she started off wanting to be a full-time author and self-published two novels ("Round Trip" and "Change for a Twenty") immediately after graduation, she was surprised by how enthusiastic she was working within the journalism, legal and financial industries (all of which are her primary, private clients now). Her Hound mix Junee thinks she works too often and has zero issues with interrupting her workday for regular works and playtime. Shamontiel adopted her two years after her side gig as a dog caregiver.

Work

As a full-time freelance journalist and editor, her primary clients vary every quarter. As of September 2023, her lineup includes the following:

Copy Editor of attorney's weekly newsletter, business/legal FAQs and Forbes articles
Fact Checker for legal, finance, health and real estate newsletters for a marketing firm
Proofreader of quarterly financial series about Wall Street news, stocks and bonds
Editor of feature copy for 80+ franchise business blogs, magazine features and marketing copy

Outside of the editorial projects above, her latest op-ed bylines can be found on Substack.

Before becoming a full-time freelancer, she dabbled in the marketing industry for a year and a half, shortly after completing a co-writing partnership for J. Paye in Brief's law blogging series. (Her additional writing clips can be found in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender, CBS Chicago, Go4Rent Magazine and more.)

As a tech enthusiast with a web editing background, her resume includes past full-time employment as a Digital News Editor for the Chicago Tribune, and as a Staff Writer and Web Editor for The Chicago Defender. Her print editing background includes Feld Entertainment and Pearson Education, as well as a former Assistant Copy Editor for Kaplan Financial.

Volunteer

Shamontiel L. Vaughn, CC, PM5, ACB, was a member of Unity Toastmasters, a community Chicago Toastmasters club. She's held five offices in years' past: President, VP of Education, VP of Membership, VP of Public Relations (two times) and Sergeant at Arms. Shamontiel competed at the division level with a corporate Toastmasters group for the 2018 International Speaking Competition before joining Unity TM. In February 2018, she completed her Competent Communicator certification. In May 2019, she completed Pathways and became Presentation Mastery Proficient. And in December 2019, she earned certification in Advanced Communicator Bronze. With the help of her Toastmasters training, she was also a yearlong co-host (2019) of Do Not Submit Chicago: Rogers Park. She was also the 2020-21 condo association board president and 2021-22 condo board treasurer for her residence.

Learn

This Chicago native graduated Cum Laude from Lincoln University (MO) with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Creative Writing. Shamontiel has also taken graduate school courses at DePaul University in Lincoln Park (Chicago). Her areas of educational focus were writing, communications, Spanish and criminal justice. She is also a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society.

Shamontiel has participated in various political and news events, including promoting and raising money for President Barack H. Obama's presidential campaign; completing canvass assignments for the Affordable Care Act registration; journaling about her 18-year vegetarian lifestyle; and volunteering for (now-defunct) charitable organizations such as BEHIV to speak about safe sex, STD and STI testing.

Play

Dance choreography is the most enjoyable form of exercise for her, specifically Kukuwa Fitness and WERQ. She's been taking hip-hop dance classes off and on for the past two decades since grad school. From 2019 and onward, she became an advocate for meditation (primarily with Yoni Charles or Smooth Jazz BGM) and Pilates (primarily with Isa Welly) to clear her mind, improve strength and increase flexibility. But after adopting her Hound mix, who is serious about multi-day walks, she's just as likely to be strolling around Chicago and randomly mumbling, "Why do you keep finding dead, wild animals?"