Photo by Jennifer Smoose

Kristen Van Dusen, interactive project manager for Washingtonian.com, moved to Washington on a whim in 2004. The Michigan State graduate had been a communications coordinator at General Motors in Detroit and was looking for a change. She then worked for a Web-design firm before joining The Washingtonian last September.

At Washingtonian.com, Van Dusen analyzes Web traffic, produces e-mail newsletters, and works on developing the site to increase its audience and make it more user-friendly.

This year, some of The Washingtonian’s Top Doctors content—one of the site’s most popular sections—will be online only. The interactive database Van Dusen helped create will allow readers to search for doctors by location and specialty and will include insurance and hospital-affiliation information.

An advertising major in college and onetime sports reporter for her hometown paper in Plymouth, Michigan, Van Dusen enjoys working with both sales and editorial staff: “I love that my job is not fully tech-driven. I’m always thinking about how someone navigates through the site.”

She lives in DC’s Dupont Circle neighborhood with Parker, her Shih Tzu.