​I am a Texas-based, freelance investigative reporter. My work centers vulnerable populations and often demonstrate national issues through a uniquely Texas lens. My investigations focus on federal prisons, including medical conditions, systemic sexual abuse and conditions for trans incarcerated people. Occasionally, I write about Texas lizards. Bylines include The Guardian U.S., Texas Monthly, NPR and The Marshall Project. 

Background:
As a Seeking Justice reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, I dug into criminal justice, legal policy and social justice issues for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. My investigations exposed inhumane conditions at federal prisons, including rampant sexual abuse at a women's medical prison and deadly summer temperatures inside a men's prison. On the policy side, my work regularly analyzed how county, state and federal laws actually impact Texans, such as fentanyl-related policies, the state's Drag Ban and medical child abuse legislation.

Prior to working at the Star-Telegram, I worked at the paper I grew up reading -- the Belleville News-Democrat in southern Illinois. There, I covered protests against police brutality in St. Louis, opioid hotspots in rural Illinois and all manner of breaking news.  I investigated nursing homes in the area, which had the highest rate of violations in the state.