Through reports, coalition work, and legislative or administrative outreach, I engaged in policy and advocacy work on Afghan and Ukrainian resettlement, climate displacement, and U.S. refugee admissions.This work included: — Co-led the Evacuate Our Allies Administrative Advocacy Working Group on advancing protections and immigration relief for Afghans, such as a new Temporary Protected Status designation for Afghanistan in 2023— Led Refugee Council USA's Climate Displacement Working Group in 2023 and 2024— Organized and moderated meetings with Congressional and federal administrative staff on USCRI and coalition policy priorities— Collaborated and strategized with external partners and advocates on campaigns to achieve specific policy goals, such as passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act or the restoration of resettlement benefits for newly arriving Ukrainian humanitarian parolees— Organized and hosted public-facing webinars on climate-related displacement, the crisis in Sudan, Afghan resettlement, and immigration relief for Ukrainians— Drafted internal communication updates for USCRI leadership, staff, and partner or allied agencies— Participated in media interviews with news outlets such as VOA and the National Journal to provide subject-matter expertise on relevant topics— Authoring editorials or op-eds published in The Hill, The Seattle Times, The (Cleveland) Plain-Dealer, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch— Produced advocacy materials such as one-pagers, policy briefs, statements, and social media toolkits to articulate USCRI and coalition policy objectives— Conducted impactful policy research and analysis, such as a field research report on the Uganda refugee response and refugee-led organizations or a joint project on climate-related displacement based on field research in Tijuana, Mexico— Attended the 2023 Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland to advance USCRI programmatic and policy priorities with civil society and multilateral partners

I joined a research team studying international sanctions and conflict-related sexual violence, using Myanmar as a case study. I provided editing and literature review support for this Global Affairs Canada-funded project.

As an intern for the policy and advocacy team, I assisted on advocacy calls and biweekly reports. I authored reports on climate migration and displacement pressures in Myanmar, northern Ethiopia, Haiti, and the DRC.

For my first semester of graduate school, I wrote freelance articles for the Austin Monitor and the Austin Business Journal on industrial real estate, land use regulations, and local elections.

I covered local government, economic development and the intersection of the public and private sectors in Austin, Travis County and the surrounding suburbs of Central Texas. I chronicled political debates over the first paid sick leave ordinance in the South and an overhaul of the city's land development code. I wrote about Austin's pursuit of Amazon.com, Inc.'s HQ2 and a Major League Soccer team. On an continuous basis, I covered Austin's affordability and transportation struggles as it solidified itself as one of America's fastest growing cities.

I mainly covered Sedgwick County government for the largest daily newspaper in Kansas. On this beat, I wrote about tax policy, criminal justice, economic development, mental health, infrastructure, public health and culture. I covered the politics of the Sedgwick County Commission, the five-member board that governs county policy. I used open records to write ground-breaking stories, such as contract meddling by an elected official and a $566,000 county loss to fraudulent activity. In my final months in Wichita, I focused more intensively on covering the development at Wichita State University's Innovation Campus and the potential for conflicts of interest. I also contributed to the paper's state political coverage during the 2016 and 2017 legislative sessions from The Eagle's statehouse bureau in Topeka. And I was sent to South Carolina to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew for the (Hilton Head) Island Packet.

I managed The 109, a student-run hyperlocal news site dedicated to community news in southwestern Fort Worth. I created the structure for beats and editing levels for The 109, a first for the site. I worked with TCU faculty to develop and eventually launch the site's redesign, which made it more interactive and digital-friendly.

I interned in McClatchy's Washington bureau the fall of my senior year. I contributed both daily and feature story content for the bureau. I was assigned to cover South Carolina politics for the second half of the semester for McClatchy's five newspapers in the state.

I produced feature stories, briefs and visual presentations of industry data. I wrote business news articles on health care, mobile technology, aviation and other other topics during a 10-week internship in Dallas.