EXPERIENCE
Belleville News-Democrat
Investigative reporter
MAY 2019 – PRESENT
- Report on social justice issues affecting people in seven southwestern Illinois counties.
- Accepted into the 2022-23 Poynter-Koch Media Journalism Fellowship program for professional development.
- Named one of Editor and Publisher’s “25 Under 35” next generation of newspaper leaders in 2019.
Education reporter
SEPTEMBER 2016 – MAY 2019
- Reported on issues and events in education that mattered to parents, students, teachers and taxpayers in 61 public school districts in southwestern Illinois.
Copy editor/reporter
SEPTEMBER 2014 – SEPTEMBER 2016
- Reported on Collinsville government spending, policies and officials.
- Edited colleagues’ writing and designed pages for the print product.
EDUCATION
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville | Bachelor’s degree in mass communications
AUGUST 2010 – MAY 2014
- Studied journalism and creative writing, with a focus on poetry.
- Worked at university newspaper, The Alestle, as a reporter, opinion editor, managing editor and editor-in-chief from December 2010 to May 2014.
- Interned at the Belleville News-Democrat from May to August 2013.
AWARDS
2023 first-place Knight Chair and Illinois Press Association awards and third-place Illinois Associated Press Media Editors award for investigative and community service reporting about nursing homes oversight.
2022 second-place Illinois Press Association award for using public records to take readers inside southwestern Illinois nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021 McClatchy President’s Award and third-place National Headliner Award for investigative reporting about a controversial rental housing policy.
2020 first-place Illinois Press Association award for a localized national story about gun violence against children.
2019 first-place Illinois Press Association award for community service reporting about preventing teen suicides.
2018 first-place Illinois Press Association award for best coverage of taxation in a series about sales tax proposals to pay for schools and law enforcement expenses.
2017 first-place Illinois Associated Press Media Editors award for investigative reporting about an official’s unauthorized use of city credit cards and accounts.