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
2024 first-place Knight Chair and Illinois Press Association awards for distinguished coverage of diversity and using public records in investigative reporting about how public health failed to help residents exposed to sewage from broken infrastructure.
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 home 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 how a city’s crime-free housing forced innocent people out of their homes.
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.