NancyKay Wessman

About NancyKay

I have been working with words for more than 50 years—as a journalist, public relations practitioner, health communicator, and now in publishing as author, editor, coach, and consultant. I am the author of Katrina, Mississippi: Voices From Ground Zero and co-author of You Can Fix The Fat From Childhood & Other Heart Disease Risks, Too.

Through my editorial services, other writers have published seven books, including five nonfiction and two fiction titles. Two other books await publication, and a tenth, a memoir, is in development.

I cut my teeth in editing, starting as a proofreader at my hometown weekly newspaper, The Magee Courier, where I both reported and edited the news. As writer/editor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, I learned how to “write tight, write it right” from a boss lady who had mastered her craft at The Chicago Tribune.

A proud graduate of the University of Southern Mississppi, I also earned a master’s of public health degree from Tulane University. After 25 years with the Mississippi State Department of Health, I launched WessComm, LLC, to provide communications and management consulting and services. For Tulane University SPHTM, I developed and taught web-based courses on health risk communication and media relations.

Now on the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Writers Guild, I previously served as president of the National Public Health Information Coalition and The Public Relations Association of Mississippi. I have been a speaker or panelist at numerous state and national events and a consultant to many national public health organizations. I am a member of The Author’s Guild and of Editorial Freelancers Association.

Gardener, Cook, Housekeeper

These monikers might most appropriately represent NKW. While I have relinquished most of the heavy duty yard work to a superb crew, I still enjoy searching for, discovering, and tending perennial and annual plants for my New Orleans-style courtyard. Someday I shall forego—for the most part—the words business and concentrate more energy on these domestic duties and opportunities.

Cooking—a joy for well more than half a century. As a youngster, I particularly enjoyed preparing and serving full meals to family and friends: Southern meat-and three (or more)-favorites; Cajun or Creole specialties; barbeque from Tennessee, Texas, and North Carolina; brunch menus with Bloody Mary’s or mimosas . . . And I liked to bake pies, cookies, and cakes—not so much now. And also now, despite my extensive collection of cookbooks from the USA, Europe, and South America, I frequently search online for recipes that match the food available in the kitchen; grocery shopping does not please me!

Housekeeping ranks high on the displeasure scale, too. I prefer reading. But I absolutely must have an environment that affords me order and cleanliness. As my mother taught me from a very young age, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” So, clean I do.