Based in St. Louis, MO
I talk to people, request public records and use programming to investigate and tell stories.
I grew up in Mahomet, Illinois, a small town surrounded by cornfields. I knew I wanted to be a journalist in high school. I got my journalism and informatics degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and I was a beat reporter in Colorado and Florida before moving to St. Louis to become a data reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and a believer in the profession for longer. I’ve been a proud member of Investigative Reporters and Editors since college. I’m now a state investigative reporter with the Illinois Answers Project, focused on investigations in the Metro East and Southern Illinois.
I live in St. Louis, where I’ve lived for 9 years. When I’m not on a phone call or badgering someone for records, I am in the garden, at a Cardinals game, telling my cat that she is the best and I love her, or keeping up with four different text conversations on three different chat platforms while complaining about spending too much time on my phone.
If I’m not in any of the above places, hopefully I’m at a concert somewhere, in Chicago, on a float trip, or checking another travel destination off of my bucket list.
If you have tips about anything you think needs investigated in the state of Illinois — anything involving wrongdoing, particularly if it affects many people, and with specific details and evidence about what’s happened and who was harmed — please head to my tips page.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
— Steve Jobs (bold and emphasis mine)
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.“
