About the Authors

Cristina Fairhurst:

Cristina Fairhurst lives in South Florida with her husband, son and elderly mom. She is a web/marketing consultant for a local avionics company among working as a freelance web developer for some South American companies. In addition to her consulting work and responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom, she teaches web design and internet classes in the evenings at a local adult community high school.

Cristina has worked with many major print and internet communication companies; the most recent was as a creative manager for a Latin America ISP where she worked closing with company counterparts in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

She speaks fluently Portuguese, Spanish and English. Has some knowledge of French and Italian. She was originally from Brazil, but was raised in North Jersey. After moving to Florida in the late eighties she acquired two B.A.'s -Visual Communication and Fine Arts from University of South Florida in Tampa. She is constantly updating her skills by acquiring a technical degree from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Web and Multimedia Design. Currently, she is in the process of completing her Master’s Degree in Adult Education and Distance Education (MAED) with the University of Phoenix online program.

Cristina has many life experiences both educational and professional. She has experiences as a professional photographer and creative designer and developer in both the printing and web/programming industries.

She has had many successes in these fields but decided after the birth of her son decided advance your knowledge in the area of Distance Education. The field of instructional designer and teaching adults in a virtual learning environment really interested her. Hence, she decided to enroll in the University of Phoenix, an educational institution that offers an impressive curriculum in MAED.

When she is not working, taking care of her child and advancing her professional skills, she enjoys hobbies such as yoga, Pilates, biking, tennis, photographying flowers, working with graphics, shooting and editing video, surfing the web and reading.