News

I worked as a reporter, copy editor, online editor and supervising reporter with NJ Advance Media, The Star-Ledger and South Jersey Times. Below, you’ll find selected works that highlight news coverage and journalistic content creation for story-telling.

• Residents’ complaints pile up against officers involved in fatal shooting: Through Open Public Records Act requests, interviews with law enforcement as well discussions on background with local residents, complaints against an officer involved in the fatal traffic stop shooting of a suspect are laid out.
• “The people getting clean in Camden are the ones who ‘really want it'”: Camden, home of a methadone clinic that sits in the shadow of its city hall, was not spared from the nationwide heroin epidemic. In this video segment, those looking to keep clean speak about their daily struggles in the “city invincible.”
  
• Vietnam vet wins fight to fix friend’s tombstone: A veteran of the Vietnam War spent years trying to correct the tombstone of a friend who was killed in action alongside him. In this two-part story, the Veterans Administration finally decides to fix the error after years of foot-dragging without comment after the fact.
• N.J. pet store, animal activists face off over source of puppies: Animal lovers from alerted me to their plans of protest and I arranged coverage. However, the stories would eventually prompt one local county government to adopt a resolution prohibiting pet stores from selling kittens and puppies acquired from so-called “mills.”
• Only in my backyard: The search for N.J.’s safe, legal off-road riding: For this article on legal off-road motorcycle and ATV riding in New Jersey, the ever-dwindling options for enthusiasts of the sport were detailed.
  

Delivery drivers weigh risks, rewards following stick-up spree: In this ride-along with a food delivery driver, the very real risk of violence stands in the face of cash in their hands at the end of the night. Armed robberies, for example, are where “the risk and the reward don’t pay out.”

Below are additional photojournalism elements used as stand-alone shots or to accompany articles and help tell the story.

Below is additional information about personal recognition and awards received for news writing and other work in the field of journalism.

• On-air guest, WHYY 90.9 FM: I was invited to speak about covering crime, business and education in Camden, New Jersey for the Nov. 10, 2016 edition of “Radio Times” with Marty Moss-Coane.
• Game Changer: I received the 2016 “Game Changer” award in media and journalism from the Gloucester County chapter of the NAACP. The honor, which included signed proclamations from the U.S. House of Representatives and New Jersey state legislature, was largely due to my continued coverage of a family whose son was killed in a Philadelphia shooting and their efforts to help fellow survivors following the tragedy.
• New Jersey Press Association: First place in business reporting for coverage of Atlantic City’s 2014 casino closures and first place in public service for a two-part series on a Vietnam veteran’s struggle to correct a fallen friend’s tombstone. Additional awards include second place in breaking news coverage and third place for my work as a reporter with less than one year of professional experience.
• Guest speaker: Invited to address a class of journalism students at Rowan College of Gloucester County in Feb. 2016.