WORK EXPERIENCE

Housing Insecurity Reporter | The Arizona Republic | Phoenix, AZ | Sept. 2022 - Aug. 2023

I wrote breaking news, enterprise and investigative stories on affordable housing and homelessness in the fifth-largest city in the U.S.

• My story about people throughout the U.S. competing for scarce spots on Arizona’s affordable housing waitlists was featured on the front page of USA Today and inspired a bill in the state legislature that would have prioritized Arizonans for local housing programs. It received a 2023 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) honorable mention.
• My persistent coverage of developers displacing mobile homeowners prompted state legislators to increase the amount of money displaced families can receive from the state.
• I started a monthly discussion group for reporters on the equity team to workshop stories and ideas.

Enterprise Reporter | PublicSource.org | Pittsburgh, PA | Sept. 2019 - June 2021

I was named Pennsylvania’s Emerging Reporter of 2021 for my accountability reporting on criminal justice and mental health.

• My series on how court debt traps low-income Pennsylvanians in a cycle of poverty led the county to obtain a $50K grant to implement court fine and fee reforms. The series won several regional investigative awards and was a finalist for an Online News Award in explanatory reporting.
• I was a mental health journalism fellow with the Center for Public Integrity, where I published a story about how a Pennsylvania state law enabling counties to place residents in involuntary treatment had yet to be implemented anywhere in the state, four years after its passing.
• My sustained reporting on inadequate mental health and medical care at the Allegheny County Jail resulted in the Jail Oversight Board implementing additional oversight measures.

English Teaching Assistant | Fulbright Taiwan | Taichung, Taiwan | Aug. 2018 - July 2019

• I taught English at a public elementary school in Taiwan as part of a competitive grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

Assistant Director & Co-producer | Duolingo | Pittsburgh, PA | March 2018 - July 2018

• I oversaw production of "Something Like Home," a documentary by Duolingo, the no. 1 education app in the world. The film showcases the transformative impact of language education for Syrian refugees living in Turkey and Jordan. It has nearly 1 million YouTube views.

SKILLS

• Public records
• Data visualization
  
• R
• Excel
• SEO optimization
  
• Photography
  
• Adobe Suite
  
• Breaking news
  
• International work experience (Taiwan, Italy)
  

HONORS & AWARDS

• Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) Best in Business honorable mention, 2023
• Pennsylvania Newsmedia Association and The Lenfest Institute Emerging Journalist Award, 2021
• Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Golden Quill Award, enterprise/investigative, 2021
• Society of Professional Journalists Keystone Award, enterprise reporting, 2021
• Pittsburgh Black Media Federation Award, investigative/enterprise reporting, 2021
• Online Journalism Awards (ONA), general excellence, micro newsroom, 2021
• Online Journalism Awards (ONA), general excellence, micro newsroom, 2020
• Online Journalism Awards (ONA) finalist in explanatory reporting, 2020 
• Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers Public Service Award, 2020
• Society for News Design Award of Excellence, longform series, 2020

EDUCATION 

Mandarin Chinese Program | National Taiwan Normal University | Sept. 2023 - Feb. 2024

MA, Investigative Journalism | Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University | Roy W. Howard Fellow | Aug. 2022 | GPA: 4.0

BA, Nonfiction Writing & Political Science | University of Pittsburgh | Apr. 2017 | GPA: 3.95 (summa cum laude)