More About Me

I started working at Trib Total Media as an Editorial Intern at 17, just after graduating high school. There, I shadowed talented reporters, and stumbed through my first few bylines on community events, recessions and turnpike tolls, dog-friendly restaurant features, trash ordinances - anything my editor would assign and print. 

My freshman year at Syracuse University, I joined Jerk Magazine as an opinion and culture staff writer before becoming an editor for Jerk's website. After another summer interning at the Trib, I took an Intro to Data Journalism course with Professor Nausheen Husain, who hired me as a research assistant on my first long-form investigative project. 

Aly Panjwani, Nausheen Husain and I would work together for two years, filing FOIAs to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, reading through court filings and records on PACER, and revealing the startling expansion of two secretive prison facilities called Communication Management Units. I spent months compiling a comprehensive list of all the known inmates in each unit, identifying and analyzing their sentences and backgrounds to reveal patterns of bias towards the Muslim community. Our reporting was published in The Nation and The Appeal, and spotlighted by advocates calling for prison reform.

Professor Husain and I continued working together during my senior year of college. I signed on as a Project Assistant on a Newhouse-led immigration reporting project, covering immigration court and launching my first independent investigation. My research led me to a story about the impact of updated background screening protocols for sponsors of unaccompanied immigrant youth, revealing a correlation between stricter policies and an increase in the average length of time children spent in detention facilities. 

Also during my senior year, I began writing for the Central Current as an Editorial Intern, producing city council and police reform stories. In addition, I received the David Newhouse Investigative Fellowship, producing content for MLive, Al.com, and Syracuse.com on immigration. I have the honor of being the co-founder of Investigative Reporters and Editors at SU.

When I'm not writing, I'm likely reading fiction books, rewatching my favorite TV show or movie for the hundredth time, spending time with my incredibly supportive family, or cuddling my dog.