The University of Pittsburgh

Senior Director, Public Impact Project Strategy・Aug. 2025 – now

STRATEGY・Recruited to launch a new Public Impact Portfolio in Pitt’s External Relations unit that strives to ensure the university is contributing to the well-being of Pennsylvania and communities beyond
・Designing a process to catalogue and quantify the impact of activities across the university addressing real-world challenges, strengthening the regional economy, and improving life and lives

STORYTELLING ・Designing editorial and communications processes for the Public Impact Portfolio; overseeing editing and writing

Senior Director, Project Strategy・April 2024 – Aug. 2025

STRATEGY・Spearheaded goal-oriented content reimagining across the Office of University Communications and Marketing teams and university-wide units
・Maintained and created new relationships with key university stakeholders
・Designed and implemented best workflow practices between teams

NOTEWORTHY・Completed MBA and AI in local journalism research practicum while working full time

Senior Director, Content Strategy・Aug. 2021 – March 2024

LEADERSHIP・Provided editorial leadership; managed editors of the university’s news site, Pittwire, and alumni magazine, Pitt Magazine; oversaw and trained 11-person editorial staff
・Guided development of publications’ websites and newsletters and magazine redesign

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Senior Editor, Newsletters & Digital Storytelling・Feb. 2021 – Aug. 2021

INNOVATION・Promoted to oversee digital strategy with an eye on audience habit for the commonwealth’s largest newsroom; created and hired a team of digital editors to improve storytelling on a redesigned site encouraging deeper interaction and curation
・Tasked with the evolution of 12 editorial newsletters by ensuring a clear strategy and defined audience for each, including a morning edition reaching more than 170,000 people

COLLABORATION・Worked with product, analytics, marketing and advertising departments on key projects including newsletter development, subscriptions, membership, lifting the meter for public good, site redesign and app development
・Served on the anti-racist voice, style, and mentorship committees and a workstream setting five-year goals for subscriptions and memberships

Deputy Managing Producer & Mobile Editor・April 2019 – Feb. 2021

LEADERSHIP・Recruited into a newly created role to oversee daily operations of inquirer.com and its app
・Managed about a dozen digital producers charged with keeping news and sports products fresh, lively, accurate, interesting and useful, including identifying opportunities to improve headlines, visuals and other online presentation
・Implemented newsroom-wide headline and SEO training
・Created data-led push-notification strategy
・Troubleshooted problems with our site and CMS (Arc) tool and working with systems, product and other departments to ensure timely and satisfactory resolution

NEWS・Planned and executed daily and major breaking coverage with editors and reporters, including of elections, COVID-19, racial justice protests, and special projects
・Ran weeklong, around-the-clock digital coverage of the presidential race from Election Day through the counting of Philadelphia ballots that decided the election, Nov. 2020

The Incline

Founding Editor・July 2016 – March 2019

LEADERSHIP・Recruited to launch Spirited Media’s second local start-up
・Created and executed editorial and audience development strategies
・Managed news coverage and operations; hired and managed seven-person newsroom and freelancers; oversaw site development
・Oversaw goals and budgets

MEMBERSHIP & REVENUE・Implemented a membership program, Feb. 2018
・Worked with sales and events staff to host profitable events; designed advertisements

NEWS・Led coverage of the Tree of Life massacre, police shooting of Antwon Rose II, and 2016 and 2018 elections; edited all articles and wrote SEO- and human-friendly headlines

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT・Tracked values-based goals in Google Analytics and Parse.ly
・Redesigned daily newsletter to convey values and the city’s voice; edited newsletter
・Created audience-driven reporting projects and templates for sister sites
・Managed collaborations with PolitiFact, HuffPost, Report for America, 100 Days in Appalachia, and local radio and television

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Reporter・Jan. 2013 – July 2016

・Covered Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments, criminal and civil courts,
crime and breaking news for the region’s largest news organization

• After an 11-year-old died and a 16-year-old was injured in a shooting in their home, their family told me what they saw, heard, and felt that night.
• Alternate jurors’ role can be challenging.
• Making internal and external reforms, the Pittsburgh police chief talked about his long view on reducing violence, one year in.

・Pitched and executed enterprise reports and Sunday stories​
・Worked night cops shifts filing breaking news to the web in tandem with second-day stories for print; made photos and shot video from breaking news scenes

Copy Editor・May 2012 – Jan. 2013

・Edited, designed and proofed daily paper; wrote headlines and captions
・Served on Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s executive committee
・Interned on the copy desk, summer 2011 and winter break 2011-12

The Heinz Endowments

Intern・Summer 2010

・Interned with The Heinz Endowments’ communications staff; wrote a 2,500-word article for h magazine about Pittsburgh’s boomerang effect

・Edited the magazine and website; tracked news articles about the foundation and grantees

The Daily Collegian

Editor-In-Chief・April 2011 – April 2012

・Managed a 175-student news division of editors, reporters, photojournalists and designers at Penn State’s independent, 20,000-circulation student-run daily newspaper during my senior year of college

・Organized and led award-winning breaking news and coverage of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and the death of former football coach Joe Paterno

Edited opinion page; wrote columns and editorials; launched sex column “Mounting Nittany”

・Improved organizational structure of Collegian’s editorial division by implementing independent staffs for social media (which grew Twitter followers from about 7,000 to more than 20,000) and multimedia; combined news and sports copy desks into a universal hub

・Worked at least 60 hours per week at the Collegian, in addition to being a full-time student; read my senior column here

・Served as a member of the Collegian, Inc. Board of Directors and represented The Daily Collegian on the Penn State Student Leaders Roundtable

Beat & Copy Editor・Dec. 2009 – March 2011

Managed and assigned campus and arts staffs of about 30 reporters; developed story ideas; edited copy

Designed and proofread broadsheet and magazine pages; wrote headlines and photo captions; edited local, national, international news and sports articles for content and style

Reporter・Sept. 2008 – Dec. 2009

Wrote about student life and the Penn State administration, including tuition, budgetary concerns, and lawsuits against the university; covered Penn State Board of Trustees and Faculty Senate meetings

Covering the PSU Scandal & death of Joe Paterno

In the year that the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal erupted at Penn State University and legendary football coach Joe Paterno died, my rule was simple: The Daily Collegian had to provide consistent and accurate coverage for our core audience, students.

Meanwhile, people from across the nation turned to the Collegian for updates. The Collegian flew off newspaper stands, even a special edition that came out on a Sunday. A student painted an entire gallery of Collegian-inspired works (above). Print was relevant.

At the end of the fall semester, I wrote about the experience for the Collegian Alumni Interest Group. After graduating, I penned a column on what the campus was like as the scandal erupted.

Here are a few front pages from that year:

Sunday, Nov. 13, 2011

For the second time in the Collegian’s 125-year run, we printed a Sunday edition, covering a student vigil, a Board of Trustees meeting and the first Penn State football game that Joe Paterno hadn’t coached in some six decades.

Simply put, we didn’t think the news could wait until our Monday edition hit stands.