About Me

I'm an investigative reporter, creative nonfiction writer, literary journalist, media ethicist and journalism professor at the University of Connecticut. My research and reporting focus on the intersection of misinformation and gun violence and how journalists cover mass shootings, the subject of my book-in-progress. 

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, and a metro reporter at The Baltimore Sun. I started my career as an intern and temporary correspondent in the DC bureau of People Magazine. I've won several state and regional journalism awards, and I was a national finalist in 2007 for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. 

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 University.

In addition to journalistic work, 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.

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.