Allena Tapia

Expertise: Freelance writing
Title: Freelance writer, editor and translator
Education: Michigan State University
Location: Lansing, Michigan

Highlights

  • Over 10 years of experience in writing, editing, and translation, including full time, part time and contractual work
  • Founder and principal of GardenWall Publications, a marketing communications agency
  • Managing editorial duties for Adelante Forward Teaching on writing and blogging at Lansing Community College

Experience

Allena Tapia is a former writer for The Balance Careers covering freelance writing. Tapia has over 10 years of experience in writing, editing, and translation, including full time, part time and contractual work

As a communications and marketing consultant, Tapia provides services through her business, GardenWall Publications, a marketing communications agency in Lansing, Michigan, serving clients worldwide. 

She started her communications career with positions as a publicity writer, a marketing writer, and a project assistant, serving as a full-time employee within offices at both Michigan State University and Lansing Community College. 

She built GardenWall Publications and was turning a profit within 6 months. Within just a couple years, GWP began contracting with companies, websites, publishers and magazines such as the Huffington Post, BITCH magazine, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Gale Cengage, Hispanic Executive magazine, and Latino Leaders magazine. GardenWall Publications has interviewed and/or profiled over 60 professionals in government, marketing and health care for print and online features/profiles.

Tapia blogs about the freelance business at GardenWall's Freelance Writing blog. Major contracts include managing editorial duties for Adelante Forward magazine, media and communications support for Progress Michigan, a regular column at WOW-Women on Writing, and various writing, editing or translation projects for clients like Huffington Post, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Gale Cengage, and Kirkus Reviews. 

She enjoyed three years of teaching on writing and blogging at Lansing Community College, but currently concentrates on regional and national writer's conferences.

Publications

Education

Allena Tapia earned a bachelor's degree in English from Michigan State University. She also accomplished one year of a Professional Writing Master's program with research focusing on Latino community rhetoric.

About The Balance

The Balance, a Dotdash Meredith brand, makes money easy to understand. We give people tools they need to not only make smart financial decisions but also prepare for the experiences they will have along the way. Our team of expert writers and editors have extensive qualifications in the topics they cover, and many of them have MBAs, PhDs, CFPs, and other advanced degrees and professional certifications. We require our writers to use primary sources in their articles, which are also approved by our Financial Review Board and fact-checked. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.

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