About Shamontiel

Writer ~ Editor ~ Dog Care ~ Toastmaster

Those five words pretty much sum up Shamontiel's career and passions, as both a full-time freelancer and a dog sitter/walker. She's found a way to make a living from her passions: writing, storytelling, public speaking and woman's real best friend: dogs.

Who is Shamontiel?

Shamontiel (pronounced Shə mawn T L) Latrice Vaughn is a full-time, freelance editor and (copy)writer via Upwork. Her primary clients vary every quarter, but as of June, the most consistent ones are Amazon Affiliates, American Business Data Science, Art de Erica, Kyle Westaway and Tess Wittler.

The Chicago native has 15 years of combined publishing experience in journalism (Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, CBS Chicago, Yahoo! Contributor Network); print and online editing (Kaplan Financial, Sun-Times Network); website building and editing; and social media marketing. She is also the author of two novels ("Round Trip" and "Change for a Twenty," written during her undergraduate and grad school days). When she's not reading, writing or editing, Shamontiel is usually busying herself as a Wag and Rover dog caregiver, condo association president and Toastmasters president.

Volunteer

Shamontiel L. Vaughn, CC, PM5, ACB, is currently serving as the 2020-21 President for Unity Toastmasters, a community Chicago Toastmasters club. She's held four other offices in years' past: 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. As mentioned above, she's also the 2020-2021 condo association board president for her residence.

Work

Her latest work can be found through her current or her Medium account. She dabbled in the marketing industry for a year and a half, after completing a co-writing partnership for J. Paye in Brief's law blogging series. (She still occasionally works on marketing and editing for a few private law firms. Her additional writing clips can be found in RETHINK Retail, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender, CBS Chicago, MADE magazine, Gurulife, Sun Times Network, Blavity, Citizens in America magazine and a few others.

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 employment as an Assistant Copy Editor for Kaplan Financial.

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. 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 15-year vegetarian lifestyle; and volunteering for (now-defunct) charitable organizations such as BEHIV to speak about safe sex, STD and STI testing.

Play

Her weekly workout routine includes Kukuwa Fitness, WERQ hip-hop dance classes or yoga. Prior dog walking with Wag! and Rover (pre-COVID-19) confirmed she'd always get in her 10,000 daily steps.