About
I am an award-winning reporter, writer and producer who has covered breaking news, business, politics and communities in Louisiana, Southern California, Florida and New York. Currently I work as a health reporter for The Acadiana Advocate in Lafayette, La., and am a member of the 2024 cohort of USC Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship. In early 2022, I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, where I worked on my Spanish fluency and freelanced for a German tv station (ZDF), producing web content. I hold a graduate degree in data journalism from the Columbia University School of Journalism and I enjoy working on news stories with a human interest bend and strong characters that illustrate the impact of policies or market forces.
Experience
Reporter/Photographer, The Acadiana Advocate/The Current
July 2023 - current
Working in the Lafayette, La., offices of The Advocate in collaboration with the local investigative nonprofit The Current, I cover health in the Acadiana region. I was selected for the University of Southern California’s Center for Health Journalism’s National Fellowship with a project on the effects of deinstitutionalization on mental health care access.
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Reporter/Photographer, The Advocate/The Times-Picayune
July 2022 - July 2023
Serving as the Lake Charles, La., correspondent for The Advocate in Baton Rouge and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, I reported on the region’s recovery process from four federally-declared disasters that hit consecutively in the span of just a few months in 2020 and 2021, devastating the region. I also covered general news as needed.
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Reporter, Long beach business journal/Long Beach Post
November 2018 - November 2021
As the member of a small but powerful team, I covered breaking news, policy and business topics across the board, with a special focus on the expanding local cannabis industry. I hosted and produced the Business Journal’s first podcast.
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watchdog reporter, The desert sun
September 2017 - Oktober 2018
I covered the communities of Indio and Coachella in the eastern Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. My reporting focused on local government, but I also reported stories across different beats, such as the environment, immigration and business development. I spent Monday nights listening to the police scanner or rushing to the next wildfire as a contributing member of the breaking news team.
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reporting intern, naples daily news
June 2017 - September 2017
As a reporting intern at the Naples Daily News, I produced reporting in a variety of formats, including data-driven stories, features and news briefs. During my first week, I reported on the reactions of local Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants to President Donald Trump's Cuba policy, which he presented during a visit to Miami. As one of my last projects, I finished a data-driven story on flower imports, including an original visualization, and accompanied a young woman from an undocumented family during her last days at home before moving to NYC and fulfilling her dream of studying fashion.
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Contributing Writer & producer, Hereyouare
October 2016 - May 2017
While attending journalism school at the University of Columbia in New York, I reported and produced short, informational videos as well as narrative content for Hereyouare, a digital-only magazine targeting an urban, millennial audience. The videos primarily focused on local issues such as food vending licenses and the planned shutdown of the L-Train between Manhattan and Brooklyn, and were produced primarily for social media distribution. As one of my last projects, I covered the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017.
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archive assistant, Rtl studio berlin
April 2012 - September 2014
As an archival assistant at the capital studio of Germany's largest private broadcasting company, I was responsible for preparing and archiving incoming video footage for future broadcast use. In this role, I also assisted producers by locating and providing appropriate archival footage for news segments on deadline and digitizing taped material.
Language Skills
Education
columbia university graduate school of journalism
DATA JOURNALISM
Class of ‘17
humboldt university, berlin
B.A. AMERICAN STUDIES / GENDER STUDIES
Class of ‘16
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
VISITING SCHOLAR (CHICANO/A STUDIES, ENGLISH LIT., GENDER STUDIES)
September 2014 - June 2015