Professional Experience
Freelance Reporter, Panelist, and White Paper Author, (11/2025 - present)• Undertake and complete investigative projects and other enterprise journalism for regional and national news organizations
• As an expert panelist, present on the demographic, societal, and technological challenges ahead for public research universities across the next 25 years
• Draft white paper entitled "Generational Change: Public Research Universities and the Next Quarter-Century (2026-2050)"
Senior Reporter – The Chronicle of Higher Education, (11/2021 - 10/2025)
Staff Reporter – (01/2018 - 10/2021)
• Pitch and produce original breaking-news content, medium-term enterprise analyses, and long-term investigative projects
• Spearhead and collaborate on FOIA and open-records requests, as well as on data-driven and agenda-setting projects
• Code and deploy a suite of free or low-cost reporting and data-collection assets
Data Reporter – The Chronicle of Higher Education, (04/2016 – 12/2017)
• Collect, clean, analyze, and lead the publication of The Chronicle’s semiannual chief executive compensation projects
• Pitch and produce data-driven articles, and collaborate with reporters
Data Reporter – The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, (02/2015 – 04/2016)
• Produce data-driven stories and online interactive features
• Assist reporters in learning data skills or applying them to their beats
• Maintain and build in-house databases for reporters and editors, plus an online data repository for the public
Fellow – The Medill Justice Project, (09/2014 – 12/2014)
• Continually update MJP’s comprehensive database of shaken baby cases
• Analyze and interpret trends within the data
Finance & Policy Intern – The Chronicle of Higher Education, (06/2014 – 08/2014)
• Cover national higher-ed news, including government policy, institutional finance and budgetary trends
• Produce special reports and craft one-of-a-kind databases
• Create multimedia complements
Investigative/News Producer Intern – KMOV-TV, (01/2014 – 05/2014)
• Submit and track government information requests
• Produce pieces for newscasts and special projects
• Write scripts for the primetime newscast and web
• Coordinate coverage of election results for the Illinois Primary (3/18/14) and Missouri municipal elections (4/8/14)
Senior Editor – The Journal at Webster Univ., (05/2013 – 05/2014)
• Oversee and report on long-term investigative projects
• Produce pieces for newscasts and special projects
• Manage a small group of reporters, providing advice and support
• Seek out multimedia storytelling options to enhance our reporting
Freelance Reporter – The Saint Louis Business Journal, (05/2013 – 08/2013)
• Cover trade trends and business growth in the St. Louis region
• Topics included healthcare, trade with China and saving for retirement
News Editor – The Journal at Webster Univ., (05/2012 – 05/2013)
• Manage and advise a staff of a dozen student journalists
• Assign stories, edit copy and lay out the news section of the weekly paper
• Develop and encourage multimedia stories for news
• Facilitate a "public records" state of mind in the newsroom
Staff Reporter – The Journal at Webster Univ., (07/2011 – 01/2012)
• Develop my reporting skills while covering the courts and breaking news
Programming Languages
• Python, using NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Beautiful Soup, Flask, GeoPandas, tabula, PDFPlumber• JavaScript, using Apps Script, D3.js, Leaflet.js, Node.js, Playwright, Highcharts JS, jQuery, RawGraphs, React, Preact, TypeScript, Vue
• R, using tidyverse, ggplot2, caret, keras
• Bash & command-line tools, such as csvkit
• Structured Query Language
• Regex / Regular Expression
• AppleScript
• Ruby
Awards & Honors
• Finalist — 2023 D.C. Society for Professional Journalists Dateline Awards: Features, Newsletters/Trade Publications• Finalist — 2021 D.C. Society for Professional Journalists Dateline Awards: Features, Newsletters/Trade Publications
• Finalist — 2019 Education Writers Association National Awards for Education Reporting: Eddie Prize
• Honorable Mention — 2019 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Best in Business Contest: Explanatory, Medium-sized Newsroom
• Finalist — 2019 Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. Awards: Investigations Triggered by Breaking News
• 3rd Place — 2019 National Headliner Awards: Education Writing
• Finalist — 2019 D.C. Society for Professional Journalists Dateline Awards: Investigative Reporting/Journalism, Newsletters/Trade Publications
• Winner — 2018 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Best in Business Contest: Personal Finance, Medium-sized Newsroom
• Winner — 2017 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Best in Business Contest: Personal Finance, Medium-sized Newsroom
• 3rd Place — 2016 Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists Page One Awards: Investigative Reporting/Journalism, Newspaper (50,000+ Circulation)
• Winner — 2015 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Investigative Reporting/Journalism, Division II
• Finalist — 2014 National Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• Winner — 2014 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• Finalist — 2014 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• Finalist — 2014 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: General News Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• Finalist — 2014 Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. Awards: Student Category
• Winner — 2014 Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing Best in Business Contest: Student, Student Publications
• Finalist — 2014 Education Writers Association National Awards for Education Reporting: Data Journalism, Medium-sized Newsroom
• Winner — David W. Miller Award for Young Journalists from The Chronicle of Higher Education ($3,000 prize)
• Finalist — Tulsa Press Club Great Plains Journalism Awards, Student Writer of the Year
• Finalist — 2013 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• Finalist — 2013 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Journalist of the Year
• 3rd Place — 2014 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Feature Writing, Division II
• 2nd Place — 2013 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Page One Design, Division II
• 3rd Place — 2013 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Investigative Reporting/Journalism, Division II
• Honorable Mention — 2013 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: Investigative Reporting/Journalism, Division II
• 3rd Place — 2012 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Large Schools (10,000+ Students)
• 1st Place — Staff writer on 2012 Associated Collegiate Press Pacemaker-winning news website
• Honorable Mention — 2012 Missouri College Media Association Conference Awards: In-Depth Reporting, Division II
• Dean’s Service Award — Lead Student Coordinator of Suicide Awareness Week, Fall 2011
• 3rd Place — 2011 Region 7 Society for Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards: Sports-Writing, Four-Year Colleges
• 1st Place — 2010-11 Webster University Freshman Writing Awards: Creative Prize
Associations
• Society of Professional Journalists member since 2011• Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. member since 2013
• Society of American Business Editors and Writers member since 2013
• Education Writers Association member since 2014
Other Courses and Certificates
DAT204x: Introduction to R for Data ScienceIssued March 2017
edX, DataCamp, and Microsoft
Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) Boot Camp - Columbia, Missouri
Attended January 12-16, 2015
Doing Journalism With Data: First Steps, Skills and Tools
Issued Summer 2014
Data Driven Journalism MOOC