I’m coming up on five years with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). It is a very fun and rewarding job where I get to go all over Pennsylvania and do the coolest things for work. We have 124 (soon to be 125) state parks, 2.2 million (soon to be 2.3 million) acres of state forestlands, and we support the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s 6,400 local and municipal parks, 14,000 miles of trails, 86,000 miles of rivers and streams, and more. It’s a great gig. Here’s me snowmobiling recently!

 

Before to working for DCNR, I spent three years of with State Senator Vincent Hughes, who is the Democratic Appropriations Chairman in the Pennsylvania State Senate. I enjoy the work and the challenges it presents as someone who likes to get things done. The role can be tough because Sen. Hughes is very energetic and a leading voice on all of the important causes, which means working to properly position him in a number of conversations on a local and national level. During the pandemic, we shifted to a lot of digital communications and that was an adjustment.

I began my journey in Pennsylvania spending three and a half years as a reporter with Pennlive.com/The Patriot-News. It was different environment than my comfort zone — both as a new Pennsylvania resident and at a tri-weekly paper — yet it was a great challenge. My roles shifted constantly to handle the news needs of the time. I began as a breaking news reporter doing stories, then I shifted to covering crime and courts in Lancaster County. After moving to the Lancaster County-focused beat, I ended up being thrust into most of the breaking news situations in our region, Central Pennsylvania or the “midstate” as locals call the Central Pennsylvania near around Harrisburg.

I blogged about my experiences in journalism here. The blog’s title is a bit deceptive because I didn’t do it every day, yet the goal was to share experiences that may shape or change opinions on journalism, journalists and “the media.” That will continue to evolve as I move from being a working journalist. I plan to weigh in critically on issues with this blog, so stay tuned!

I received my bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern Kentucky University in May 2014. I love the news and am finding my niches within the journalism industry to write and report about different issues. Prior to PennLive.com/ThePatriot News, I completed an internship with The Washington Post where I worked for the Metro desk covering cops and courts. I also interned at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky., the Interior Journal in Stanford, Kentucky. and The Oldham Era in LaGrange, Kentucky.

I completed undergraduate school as the editor-in-chief of the The Eastern Progress. It was a great learning experience that challenged me to think about larger goals and helping people, while still doing my own work. I also spent time as a reporter, copy editor and assistant news editor with The Progress.

Before to transferring to EKU, I attended the University of Kentucky and worked at the The Kentucky Kernel as the opinions editor and reporter. Through these experiences I have honed my skills writing, reporting and critically thinking. I have also developed leadership, organizational and outreach skills through my various positions at newspapers.

I’m originally from Tacoma, Washington, which is why I’m a fan of the Seattle sports teams. I tacked on North Carolina basketball when I was 7 years old because my dad is from South Carolina and I thought that was the team all people from the Carolinas rooted for (I’ve been a fan since and it’s very authentic. I get very defensive about the UNC fandom because it’s the only thing that doesn’t quite make sense, but is very rationally explained). I also enjoy music, anime, radio, movies and a few other things, which makes me a pretty good critic on most things.

Feel free to check out some of my clips to get a better idea of me as a writer.

Thanks for visiting!