Bio
I’ll try anything once. I’ve run a marathon, flown in a stunt plane, scuba dived in a shark tank, taken lessons in surfing, trapeze and rock climbing, tried glassblowing and boxing and jumped out of a helicopter over the Alps. Most, but not all, of these activities were done in the name of a good story.
These stories have all been part of my work at Newsday, where I started in December 2006 as an Assistant News Manager covering entertainment. After about a year I was promoted to Online Editor of exploreLI.com, a partner site that covers, well, exploring Long Island. I contribute to Pet Rock, the pop culture blog, act as one of three on-camera hosts of ExploreTV, a weekly Web video series, and generally do a lot of other Web stuff.
But what about my background? I’m a Chicago native and still think my hometown has the best pizza and hot dogs.
Before my entree into journalism, I headed south to Nashville, where I graduated from Vanderbilt University. As both an English major and scholarship athlete, I divided my time between studying contemporary lit and competing in track & field races.
After college I worked as a Media Buyer at Starcom Worldwide in Chi-town. My ad savvy paid off — I was transferred to the Manhattan office in 2004 to work on the Coca-Cola business.
Not long after moving to New York I was accepted to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, from which I graduated in October 2006. Along the way I worked at Court TV in media, at XLR8R, a music and culture magazine, as an intern, and at Barron’s as an Online News Assistant.
While at Columbia I worked on the “Science of Sex,” a new media master’s thesis that won two Webby Awards and was a finalist at the Online Journalism Awards.
I’m a member of the Online News Association and the Newswomen’s Club of New York.
I also freelance. My print articles, covering topics ranging from paparazzi-for-hire to online anonymous confessions, have appeared in Newsday, The Arizona Republic, The Toronto Star, the San Diego Union-Tribune and other newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.
On my down time you might catch me noshing at a hip Brooklyn joint, tracking down off-beat music, or brainstorming the next Web revolution.
