About

I’m an independent writer and journalist based in upstate New York. My work has appeared in Mother Jones magazine, New York Focus, The Drift, Nieman Lab, San Francisco Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, North Country Public Radio, and elsewhere. I’m a founding member of Flaming Hydra, a cooperative publication of 60 celebrated writers, where I write a regular column. I’m also an Adjunct Professor of Journalism at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York (CUNY). I often write about media and politics, with a special focus on New York State, where I grew up and presently live.

I have over a decade of experience in journalism and have been widely recognized for my writing, as well as for my expertise in media policy, organizing, and community-driven media reform.

Since 2023, I’ve been awarded three writing residencies — one from Mesa Refuge, and two from Blue Mountain Center — as well as generous grants from the information equity organization News Futures, to develop a book proposal on radically reimagining the media system. Also beginning in 2023, I’ve worked closely with New York Focus, New York’s only statewide nonprofit newsroom, to run a statewide community listening tour and publish groundbreaking research about the information needs of New Yorkers. From 2021 to 2023, I wrote a regular column called “Mediaquake,” about the breakdown of the media system under modern capitalism, for the alt-global magazine Popula. I publish an occasional newsletter called media x capital here. Alongside Rutgers Professor Carla Murphy, I co-lead a News Futures working group focused on “Narratives for Media Reform, which you can learn more about here.

I’m regularly invited to speak about reimagining the media system at conferences, on podcasts, on radio stations, and elsewhere. To find out more about my speaking availabillity, go here or here.

Over the years, I have received a variety of awards for my work, including a Society of Professional Journalists award, an Award for Innovation in Communications from the University of California, Berkeley, a Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, and a national Foreign Language and Area Studies award, among other honors. My writing has been cited by numerous outlets (The Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Times, MSNBC, Vox, VICE, etc.), policy & advocacy organizations (Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood, etc.), federal policymakers, and others. You can find a selection of my writing here.

I also have a background in script-writing and production. Recently, I co-produced The Highest Standard (2023), a forthcoming feature documentary film about the education system in the United States. I also worked as a producer and writer on the six-part documentary series, She Creates Change (2023), which focuses on the role of education for teenage girls around the world.

I’m a proud member of the freelancers chapter of the National Writers Union and the Media Power Collaborative. I sometimes work with newsrooms, journalists, and writers directly, in the form of ongoing collaborations or subject-specific workshops. To find out more about my future availability for teaching or advisory work, contact me here.

I grew up on the northern edge of the North Country, and spend most of my time running around New York State or the West Coast.