Newswork
[For a detailed list of my work, visit About/CV]
Online non-profit journalism
IowaWatch.org and WisconsinWatch.org are websites for two nonprofit journalism centers I helped form since 2009. I worked on the front-end for each, creating methods and approaches to making our journalism interactive and accessible. Our journalism not only needed to be engaging for the public, but presented in ways that would encourage the work to be reproduced at the local level by more traditional news outlets. I sat on the Board of Directors for IowaWatch for one year after serving as co-founder. In August, 2011, IowaWatch received a $100,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.
In March 2011, I was among a team of WisconsinWatch reporters to receive an Award for Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism from the Milwaukee Press Club, for a series of investigations into the use of immigrant workers in the state’s dairy industry. Read the reports here.
Journalism as activism
In 2011, I helped start CrossingBorders.us, a community storytelling website to use art, journalism, and activism to spur public conversations about race and culture in Iowa City. This site hosts student journalism and community projects about these issues. It also serves as an organization to lead civic engagement projects and activism.
Selection of newswriting [Click the headlines to read]
Cultural rifts in Wisconsin’s North Woods
After a shooting rampage in Northern Wisconsin, this story for The Washington Post attempts to discuss the historical racial conflict in Wisconsin surrounding immigration, as well as how such struggles continue today.
The deaths of college-age men in the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis. over the past decade have created controversy surrounding drinking and risky behavior, as well as rumors of a serial killer. This was for The Washington Post.
Arcadia, Wis. is a small community that relies on cheap labor. This story for the Chicago Tribune looks at the cultural rifts created by the employment of marginalized populations in a mostly white community.
This very sad, breaking news story about a mass shooting by an off-duty police officer was written via phone from Madison for the Chicago Tribune.
Writing breaking news from half-a-state away can be challenging, but this story about a devastating tornado in Ladysmith, Wis. for the Wisconsin State Journal was recognized by Lee Enterprises for its narrative style.
American Indian art and culture
After decades of abuse, American Indian artifacts are making their ways back home from museums to reservations. This piece was for The Washington Post.
One of my favorite stories. In this piece for The Washington Post, contemporary America is examined through the fun of fish fries and the serious business and culture of commerce and cuisine in the Upper Midwest.
When the Chicago Tribune heard about a live gun range in the basement of a public school in Sheboygan, Wis., we wanted to find out more. This piece looks at culture, history and connects to today’s challenge of balancing safety and tradition.
Education for a new generation of American Indians
As more American Indian communities strive to connect to their roots, prepare for the future and make a place in the educational landscape, this story for the Chicago Tribune looks at one of those examples near Milwaukee.
