Suburbs reporter at Chicago Tribune and Pioneer Press covering Glenview and Northbrook, then changed beats to Elmwood Park, Franklin Park, Norridge and Harwood Heights.Focused on local government, education, development and cannabis policy.

Covered breaking news, crime and general assignments.Used social media to feature voter's voices at the polls and wrote for the live election blog.Shot photo and video for breaking news situations and for social media.

Wrote in-depth investigations, explanatory reports, feature stories and breakingnews.Created a beat related to my investigation into the backlog of untested sexualassault evidence.Cultivated relationships with sources on the beat and produced a series of storieson intimate violence and the criminal justice system.Used public records and data to add clarity and accountability to reports.Told stories using photo and video journalism. Wrote for social media and edited others' work for grammar, style and clarity.

Wrote, edited and contributed to academic papers.Led my own research project, which investigated the characteristics anddemographics of people with intellectual disabilities in prison.Performed quantitative and analyses with SPSS.Interviewed prison mental health providers and parole officers on the factors thatinfluence this population’s high recidivism rate.

Responsible for coordinating projects between community agencies, including organizing homeless resource and outreach events, opening an emergency shelter and developing new programs.Assisted in managing donated items, vendors and facility access for a winter homeless shelter. Wrote and edited communications materials, assisted in planning advocacy campaigns.Engaged community members through surveys, resource events and other community outreach work.Used advanced data analysis skills in Excel for a case study on chronic homelessness.

Provided daily and occupational support to clients, working primarily with people with severe mental illnesses experiencing homelessness.Tracked program outcomes and assisted with grant applications. Worked to increase client referrals by sharing program information with community stakeholders. Helped to train new staff, volunteers and interns.