Past work

Freelance

Decade-plus building slump limits Wichita housing choices (2025)

A Wichita man’s tale of two family homes reveals unexpected barriers to saving older houses in 67214 (2024)

The Center for Public Integrity

States ditched an election partnership. Voters will feel the consequences. (2024)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a data reporter from September 2017 to September 2022. I learned a lot, I worked with wonderful colleagues, and I got to see one of them win a Pulitzer Prize.

I spent my days digging through spreadsheets to find stories of my own and pitch in on others. I called spox and FOIA officers incessantly but politely until I got what I needed. I covered weekend shifts — protests, festivals, shootings and storms.

I wrote stories about how the city’s poorer neighborhoods are prioritized last when it comes to certain city services. I wrote about how the city of St. Louis knew a house that collapsed on and killed a firefighter had a history of neglect and should have been torn down long before the tragedy. I wrote about how many children were killed as bystanders to homicides over 30 years in the city.

I also wrote about the success of local businesses during COVID, and the 2022 Festival of Nations — my last weekend assignment. St. Louis is both beautiful and struggling, like most American cities. I didn’t realize it at the time, but doing this job made me fall in love with the city I now proudly call home.

When I wasn’t requesting records, making calls or out reporting, I was working with the paper’s top-notch data journalist and developer, Josh Renaud. He leads the Post-Dispatch suite of news applications, and I helped where I could. In my time working with him, we expanded the public pay database, launched the homicide tracker and made the difficult but necessary decision to retire the school guide after 2020.

A selection of my written work at the newspaper is below.

Festival of Nations returns to Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, draws big crowd (2022)

The Hub opens as community resource center for Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood (2022)

‘I don’t want this to wait’: St. Louis Fire to grade every vacant building (2022)

‘It should have been torn down’: House that killed St. Louis firefighter had history of neglect (2022)

‘We’re going to have to start putting people out’: Evictions rising again in St. Louis area (2021)

After eviction aid reaches landlords, some St. Louisans are still left with no place to go (2021)

Vaccine shuffle: New state data provide clearest picture yet on vaccine flow in Missouri (2021)

‘Worst thing we’ve ever seen’: Thousands of evictions loom in St. Louis (2021)

Homicides fell in St. Louis after ‘Operation Legend.’ As they always do that time of year. (2020)

New luxury units are driving apartment rents higher in St. Louis, despite COVID-19 (2020)

Tough time to buy a house: Thousands fewer on the market last month across St. Louis (2020)