About Me
My Story
I'm an investigative reporter, literary journalist and journalism professor at the University of Connecticut, where my research focuses on the intersection of misinformation and gun violence.
My articles have been published by major media organizations including The Boston Globe, CNN, Businessweek, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Conversation, The Hartford Courant, High Times, Ms. Magazine, Nieman Reports and National Geographic. I was a national correspondent for Bloomberg News, a political reporter and project writer at The Arizona Republic, a metro reporter at The Baltimore Sun, and a temporary correspondent in the DC bureau of People Magazine. I've had creative nonfiction essays and prose poetry published in literary journals including Hippocampus, Creative Nonfiction, The Midnight Oil, Full Grown People, and New Square.
I was a 2020-21 fellow at the UConn Humanities Institute, and I am a research affiliate of the UConn ARMS Center and the Rockefeller Institute for Government's Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium. I serve on the board of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and recently completed a term on the national board of the Journalism & Women's Symposium (JAWS). Before UConn, I was on faculty at Western Kentucky University and Arizona State.
Born and raised in Appalachia, I was the first person in my family to attend college, graduating with honors from the University of Maryland with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism. I later earned my masters of mass communication degree from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication.
At UConn, I teach press history, media law, and writing and reporting classes. My areas of expertise include journalism ethics, media law, the media and misinformation, and the role of journalists in a democracy. I am available for talks, panel discussions and guest lectures.
I'm also a singer and a flutist and play music with my partner, Toby, in the indie Americana Gothic project A Former Friend.
Literary Agent: Jill Marr of Sandra Djkstra Literary Agency.
Photo Credits: black and white, Leanora Benkato; color, Sydney Herdle, UConn Today.