About 8 years ago, Coley Verbick moved back to Kenosha, Wisconsin, the city where she was born and raised. She had moved to Chicago the fall after she graduated from high school to attend Columbia College. In December 2007 she received a Bachelor of the Arts in Radio with a Minor in photography. During her stay at Columbia, Coley was given the opportunity to intern at 93.1 WXRT-FM. She worked in the programming Department where she answered listener music questions, ripped both old and new music into Audio Vault, survived Lin Brehmer high-fives and general office tasks.

Coley is finishing up her degree in IT - Web Development at Gateway Technical College. She has received a certificate in Graphic Communication Web Design and is finishing up her Social Media certificate. Had Gateway continued offering a certificate in Mobile App Development, Coley would have worked towards that as well. She took a few courses in Android App Development and plans to learn iOS as well once she finally purchases a reasonably priced Mac. Coley made the decision to go back to school after being laid off from BMO Harris Bank (ironically, due to the prevalence of online and mobile banking). A career counselling service suggested keeping up with what's going on in your industry. After reading this article, Coley decided she needed to learn how to do "that."

So while Coley has enjoyed working as a web developer at Image Management in Racine (and wouldn't be opposed to continuing to learn more as the field changes), she is still looking for her first "real radio job." She spent some time working with WUWM's Lake Effect program as a production assistant, but unfortunately the public radio station didn't have enough in the budget to pay her. While her ideal job would be Music Director of a rock (specifically AAA) station, she is interested in production. With a 11,000+ song music library, she can find the perfect song for any piece. The thought of being a DJ didn't lead Coley to radio; music did. That being said, she doesn't plan to completely avoid the mic. Coley is interested in voiceover work, but whether it be radio stations, websites or apps, programming is definitely her passion.

In addition to radio, Coley enjoys photography. She swears she's not much of an artist, but definitely enjoys capturing the beauty in everyday life. Columbia College gave her the opportunity to pursue photography along with radio. She enjoys using PhotoShop to manipulate images and has a basic grasp on indoor lighting (though she'll admit she's not fond of dragging around 50lbs of lights).

Coley's other main interests are knitting, writing and roller derby. Her grandmother taught her how to knit over 10 years ago and she hasn't been able to stop (which is probably why she thinks she's developing carpal tunnel). Her knitting buddies call her the Sweater Queen because she somehow is able to crank out sweaters faster than anyone else in the group. She chalks it up to working part time. On the track, Coley is known as Knit Purl Kill (or Knit for short). The name is a play on the name of serial killer BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), but she realized only knitters would get the reference if she was Bind-Off Torture Kill, and opted for a name that most people would get. She currently skates with the Brewcity Bootleggers, the rec league of Milwaukee's Brewcity Bruisers. At some point she would like to figure out how to turn around on skates. As for writing, Coley has been keeping journals since she was 12. She also enjoys writing creative non-fiction stories, which she sometimes considers turning into production pieces. One of her musings was included on The Frustrated Grad podcast.

Coley currently works part time at Bath and Body Works and does contract work with Image Management while she finishes her second degree. You can probably figure out why she likes to contribute to The Frustrated Grad podcast.