I joined Bloomberg News in August 2009 as a personal finance reporter, covering a variety of money issues related to individuals and families. I have created mini-beats in taxes, health insurance, 401(k) plans and niche investments that are becoming popular in these economic times and have risks.
Prior to Bloomberg I worked at MSN.com, helping to create the Web site’s first multimedia team from 2006 to 2009. I was the team’s senior multimedia editor and producer, managing the production of several articles a week. All of the multimedia stories related to business, investing or personal finance and appeared on MSN’s Money channel. (See the multimedia articles tab above for examples.)
In addition, I produced my own multimedia stories – shooting and editing video and creating interactive graphics such as charts or slide shows. (See videos tab above for examples.)
I also line edited text stories and regularly covered the Money module on the MSN homepage, writing headlines and acting as news editor including during the breaking economic crisis.
Reporting from the Garden State
Prior to MSN, I reported for The Bergen Record daily newspaper in New Jersey from 2004 to 2006. There I worked as a features writer before being promoted to news reporter. I received the Robert P. Kelly Award for best reporting and writing from the New Jersey Press Association in 2005. (Go to the newspaper articles tab above for samples of my reportage.)
Chicago business and Capitol coverage
While attending graduate school for journalism, I worked as the Washington correspondent for an Iowa daily newspaper called the Waterloo Courier and reported for a cable television station in Chicago. I concentrated in business and political reporting. (See also the newspaper articles tab above.)
Making of a political memoir
My other professional experience includes helping former White House aide and cabinet secretary Joseph A. Califano, Jr., write his 2004 memoir “Inside: A Public and Private Life.”
I dug through 525 boxes of personal papers, filed FOIA requests to declassify documents, poured through more than 45,000 pages of files at the National Archives and Pentagon, and interviewed scores of people including former cabinet secretaries and CEOs.
The memoir was called “jam-packed and energetic” in Time, “a readable and valuable book” in The Washington Post and “vivid and frank” in The New York Times.
Refugees … in Iowa?
Prior to my employment above, I did a year of full-time volunteer service in Des Moines, working as a refugee caseworker and English teacher. I co-founded the Sudanese Women’s Employment project during that time in Iowa.
Background and other beats
As for education: I graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts and from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a Master’s degree in journalism, specializing in both print and broadcast.
My non-professional interests include trying to play soccer and running. I am learning how to kite board this summer and I dream of returning to a crew team as a coxswain one day.
My professional affiliations include a board, teaching and multimedia training:
- In 2008-2009 I was vice president of the board of the Journalism and Women Symposium, a national organization of journalists in online, print, magazine, broadcast, radio and academia.
- I have developed curriculum, hired instructors and lead multimedia trainings across the country. (See the multimedia training link on the right for more information.)
- I was a virtual professor, teaching online journalism at the University of Tennessee, from 2007-2008.
- In May 2009, I completed a nine-month fellowship in CORO Leadership New York, which trains mid-career professionals in leadership and policy. I shot and edited this video on the city’s public housing system for the fellowship:
