Eight years of professional experience in digital and print communications

August 2012 – present: The U-T San Diego (Calif.)
July 2014 – present – Sports features writer/San Diego Chargers audience engagement specialist
August 2012 – July 2014 – San Diego State football beat writer

• Sports enterprise and features – stories include an investigative piece about a fraudulent prep basketball program, CTE in football, the origins of the SDSU-Fresno State rivalry, a look at the resurrection of a former MMA legend and exploring national college football issues.
• Piloting “UT-Now,” an audience engagement initiative on the San Diego Chargers beat. Tasked with steering in-game conversation using ScribbleLive and social media, aggregating posts, identifying viral content and publishing using SEO-friendly practices.
• As San Diego State football beat reporter – covered Aztecs football team, maintained Aztecs blog that incorporated social media and multimedia reporting tools, conceptualized enterprise off the beat. Also featured weekly in sports programming for now-defunct in-house TV station, UT-TV.

 

April 2010 – August 2012: The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)
November 2011 – August 2012 – Sports enterprise writer/Penn State football multimedia reporter  
January – November 2011 – Sports enterprise writer
April 2010 – January 2011 – High school sports reporter

• Penn State football multimedia reporter – No. 2 on the beat; developed enterprise, produced a steady stream of written and video content for PennLive.com.
• Sports videographer – led the sports department’s foray into video storytelling. Edited and shot video and trained other sports staffers to become video savvy.
• Part of the team that earned the newsroom a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2012 for coverage on the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
• Sports enterprise reporter – followed national trends and developed enterprise ideas, especially in regard to high school sports.
• Spearheaded project to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Title IX that took second place in special projects in the 2013 Keystone Press Awards.
• High school sports beat reporter – field hockey, soccer and football

Fourth place – Explanatory Feature (75,001-175,000 circulation), 2011 APSE awards
Top 10 – Project Reporting, 2010 APSE awards
Second place – Best Sports Story, 2011 Pennsylvania Newspaper Assn. Keystone Awards.

Oct 2007 – March 2010:  The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)
Sports reporter

• West Virginia University football beat reporter
• Enterprise and general assignment in the off-season: work included everything from in-depth features, behind-the-scenes looks at WVU football, legal reporting, medical reporting, to an investigation into the WVU athletic department’s marketing methods.

Second place – Sports Beat Reporting, 2010 Pennsylvania Newspaper Assn Keystone Awards.
First place – Legal Reporting/Court Issues, 2009 West Virginia Press Association Awards.
Third place – Best Sports Feature, 2008 West Virginia Press Association Awards.

 

July – September 2007:  The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)

Sports intern

• Spokane Indians beat reporter, sports general assignment and enterprise.

Oct 2004 – June 2007: Oregon Daily Emerald (Eugene, Ore.)

Sports reporter

• Beat writer for Oregon tennis, track, women’s soccer, women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse teams. Enterprise included an in-depth look at how accepting Oregon sports teams were toward gay athletes.

Second place – Best Sports Story, 2007 Oregon Newspaper Publishers’ Association Awards.
Best Reporting Techniques, 2007 Hearst Championships.
Fourth place – Sports Writing, 2007 Hearst Awards
First place – Best Sports Story, 2006 Oregon Newspaper Publishers’ Association Awards

ALSO PUBLISHED IN:

Central PA Magazine, MLB.com, FLUX Magazine, Eugene Weekly, Sports Illustrated On Campus, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Lindy’s Sports Magazine.

 

EDUCATION
August 2010 – August 2012 Masters of Fine Arts – Goucher College (Towson, Md.)
Creative Non-Fiction Writing
Sept 2003 – June 2007 Bachelor of Arts – University of Oregon, (Eugene, Ore.)
Double major in Journalism and History
 

TECHNOLOGY & LANGUAGES

• Proficient in AP Style and several CMS platforms (including WordPress, Ellington and Movable Type).
• Well versed with all aspects of social media (including Facebook, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.)
• Proficient in shooting and editing video.
• Knowledge of basic HTML.
• Knowledge of Mandarin-Chinese and Cantonese

HONORS & ACTIVITIES

• Immediate Past President of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM), June 2012-August 2014
• Ran a board of 12 people to lead a national nonprofit. Managed accounts, recruited members and organized our annual convention.
• 2012 Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society (PATS) Service Award for coverage of issues in sports medicine
• Valedictorian, University of Oregon, Department of History, 2007
• Los Angeles Times Jim Murray Sports Journalism Workshop, Class of 2005
• Kappa Tau Alpha (National Honor Society in Journalism and Mass Communication)
• Phi Beta Kappa