I’m an editor and award-winning science journalist with nearly 15 years of experience.

Most recently I was the story editor for Sierra Magazine, where I commissioned and edited freelancers reporting on climate science, public health, environmental justice, conservation, and Indigenous affairs for the quarterly print magazine and website. I’m taking some time off in pursuit of professional development opportunities before moving onto my next full-time role. In the meantime, I am still supporting the Ag & Water Desk, a journalism collaborative covering the Mississippi River Basin, as a part-time expert journalist, editor, and mentor to Report for America fellows.

Earlier in my career, I spent many years as an independent journalist reporting on science, health, food, and technology for National Geographic, the Boston Globe, Curbed, Lenny Letter, Undark Magazine, and others. Toward the end of that time, most of my reporting happened through spearheading special newsstand issues of National Geographic called “bookazines”—these print products are reported and written by one person over the course of a year, as with a book, but distributed in the style of a glossy magazine. Head over to my Special Projects page to check out this unique work!

In addition to pursuing my own reporting and editing, I have also taught science journalism at the Johns Hopkins graduate program in science writing and an MIT summer program for rising high school seniors. I also love public speaking and regularly appear on and moderate panels, give keynote addresses at in-person events and webinars, and speak on television and radio news shows.

My professional career really kicked off with my role as MIT Technology Review's first multimedia editor. I did web production and regular reporting while also building out the centenarian magazine's inaugural social media and sharable video strategies. I also produced the multimedia myself and managed audience engagement and newsroom partnerships (in other words: I’m a survivor of the “pivot to video” era, and therefore a card-carrying millennial journalist).

I first got my feet wet in science journalism when I was a junior in college and studying abroad in London. I spent 6 months working as an editorial fellow at New Scientist, covering everything from biotech to asteroids. The role was typically awarded to students pursuing graduate degrees in journalism at the time, making me the youngest-ever person to hold the position.

My academic background consists of a master of science degree in science journalism from Boston University and bachelor of arts degrees in brain and cognitive sciences and anthropology from the University of Rochester, where I also minored in public health, and spent all of my spare time working on the campus newspaper.

I still love to learn and grow with this ever-changing industry, so every few years I pursue opportunities for professional development. I’ve completed journalism fellowships at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, Austria; the University of Chicago’s Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts; Vermont Law & Graduate School’s Environmental Law Center in South Royalton, Vermont; and New York University’s Stern School of Business in New York City.

Bottom photo by Timothy O’Connell