I am a trauma-aware journalist and speaker currently covering the U.S. housing crisis for The Economic Hardship Reporting Project. A former reporter for The Miami Herald, The St. Louis Post Dispatch and The Syracuse Newspapers, I have always written stories about  people from populations that have been misidentified and marginalized.

My personal experience of losing my family and worldly possessions — and then plunging into homelessness between 2014 and 2016 —  has given me the unique privilege of reporting and writing from an “inside out” perspective. In that new thought construct, I have learned that the strength of the human spirit is beyond anything I ever imagined. As a result, I offer a radically different perspective about what it takes to heal from crisis, individually and collectively.

There is a great need for trauma-informed journalism that delves not only into the devastation of collapse, but also into the realities of the societal context of that collapse. Just as importantly,is the Inner Strength of every individual, regardless of society’s judgments and labels.

Since my emergence, my pieces have been published in The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Slate, CNBC — as well as many other publications. I have also been interviewed for various shows and events, including The Young Turk’s “The Damage Report” with John Ladarola, as well as with Kris Boyd, host of the National Public Radio show, “Think.”

This year has brought two national fellowships: in April I worked with Yale via the Poynter Institute for Media Studies; now I’m intensely engaged with the USC Annenberg Health Foundation.

I have also been busy speaking! In June, I was the keynote speaker for the 2022 conference at the Supportive Housing Network in New York (more than 1,200 people attended!) Please see my Public Appearances page for details and to listen to available recordings.

Thank you for your interest in my work.