Rita Mace Walston is the Executive Director of the Telework Consortium, an organization to discover, evaluate and demonstrate software, hardware, and services to enable remote work and collaboration,. The Consortium assists organizations in the private and public sectors to assess and implement robust telework and distributed work programs. The Consortium also distributes information about the technology, management processes, infrastructure configurations, measurement techniques, and best practices that are likely to increase work and collaboration from remote locations.

Prior to joining the Consortium in January 2005, Walston was managing editor of Loudoun Magazine, a quarterly, full-color, lifestyle magazine serving one of the nation’s fastest growing counties, Loudoun County, and its environs. She was also systems editor for Loudoun Business, a sister publication serving the area’s business community.  Both are owned by Amendment One, Inc., a publishing firm based in Leesburg, VA.

Walston began her career in 1982 with a Michigan media market research and consulting company that specialized in television, radio and the then-infant interactive media industry. She worked with such firms as Knight-Ridder, Cowles Media Company, and AT&T in developing and overseeing pilot programs for videotex—the precursor to the publicly available Internet—around the United States. In 1985 she joined the market research department of Prodigy, a venture of IBM, CBS and Sears.

In 1989 Walston left corporate America to start a family and focus on hearth and home. By 1996 she and her husband had moved the family to a small village south of Stuttgart, Germany. It was there Walston relaunched her career, accepting a contract with About.com. She wrote and edited for the company, corresponding electronically from her home office with their New York City headquarters.

Walston continued contract work through several moves after returning to the United States, adding her by line to such firms as Jacksonville Business Journal, Jacksonville Woman, and PlanetClick.com. In 2001 she settled with her family in Loudoun County, announcing her wandering days done. She began freelancing for Loudoun Magazine in July 2001, and accepted a staff position in December, two months after its first issue hit the newsstands.

Walston graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She lives in western Loudoun County with her husband, two sons and two dogs. From her first-hand experience, she is a firm believer in teleworking and its ability to enhance business success while promoting strong families and good community stewardship.