Professional Experience
Freelance Reporter, Paid Speaker, and Industry Analyst, (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 news affecting higher education nationally, specifically related to government policy, institutional finance and budgetary trends in academe
• 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)
• Oversee and report on long-term investigative projects
• 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 layout 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 Django, Django Admin, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, SciPy, scikit-learn, Beautiful Soup, Playwright, Dask, FastAPI, Flask, GeoPandas, IPython, tabula, PDFPlumber, PyTorch, Seaborn, Streamlit, Altair• JavaScript, using Apps Script, D3.js, Mapbox GL JS, Leaflet.js, Node.js, Highcharts JS, jQuery, Preact, RawGraphs, React, Scrollama, TypeScript, Vue
• R, using tidyverse, ggplot2, caret, keras
• Bash & command-line tools, such as csvkit
• Structured Query Language
• Regex / Regular Expression
• 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