Experience

2000 – present  Freelance Journalist
Write news and feature stories for magazines like Popular Science, New Scientist, Mother Jones and Wired; conduct multi-day oral history interviews.  Reported, co-produced, and scripted the award-winning CNN Presents documentary “Reasonable Doubt: Can Crime Labs Be Trusted?” Co-authored an A1 Los Angeles Times investigation into a forensics test performed at the FBI crime lab (which the lab has since discontinued). Filled in as a general assignment reporter at the Monterey County Herald when a staff writer was on medical leave for three months. Covered medical news for patient newsletters.

2000: Analyst, Hurwitz Group, Santa Cruz, CA (Corporate – Boston)
Covered trends in computer security for Hurwitz Group newsletters and reports.

1998-2000: Editor, Dascom and IBM, Santa Cruz, CA
Wrote and edited datasheets and other materials for network security products that were developed by Dascom and then acquired by IBM.

1996-1997: Writer and Editor, Santa Cruz, CA 
Wrote twenty features for the college textbook Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture (Ann Arbor Press, 1998). Assigned, wrote, and edited stories for a three-month series of special sections for the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian newspaper.

1995: Research Intern, College Houses, Austin, TX
Produced a report on the history of the country’s third-largest student housing cooperative, covering the period between 1985 and 1989, which included the Texas real-estate crash.

Awards and Fellowships

2006: The Livingston Award for Young Journalists, for the CNN Presents documentary “Reasonable Doubt: Can Crime Labs Be Trusted?” The show was also part of a package for which CNN won the International Documentary Association Award for a continuing series, among other awards. 

2003: Soros Justice Media Fellowship. Support from the Open Society Institute to report on problems with a variety of forensic science techniques and issues with quality control at crime laboratories around the country.

1996: Porter College Undergraduate Fellowship. Support for thesis research in Costa Rica. 

Education

1997: B. A., Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz; Honors, Comprehensive Requirement
1995: University of California Tropical Ecology Program in Coto Brus, Costa Rica

Professional Affiliations

At-large board member, Northern California Science Writers Association; Member, National Association of Science Writers; Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors; Member American Society of Journalists and Authors