Writer

I didn’t want to be a journalist. But just a few days into my freshman year at North Central College my orientation leader and now friend heavily recruited me to write for the college newspaper. He was the sports editor and needed a volleyball reporter. I politely declined … until he said there was free pizza at the meetings. Never to turn down a free meal, I accepted his request, thus starting my journalism career.

I continued down the sports path, eventually becoming sports editor of The NCC Chronicle, covering high school sports for several suburban Chicago newspapers and serving as the college’s sports information director for my first full-time job.

A month after moving to Georgia I was hired by The Walton Tribune, where I later become news editor. It was there where I broadened my craft, covering everything from politics to religion and picking up several awards along the way.

After more than four years at the paper, I was hired by the University of Georgia, but I still continued to write on a freelance basis for several publications and organizations, most recently as a blogger for Patch.com. Read some samples of my work:

• The final article in a 3-part series on homelessness in Athens published in Flagpole Magazine
• A column criticizing a high-profile high school censorship case published in The Atlanta Journal Constitution
• My weekly humorous blog about parenting on Patch.com
• Press releases I’ve written for The University of Georgia
• My monthly director’s corner column for high school journalism advisers published in The GSPA Bulletin

Selected Journalism Awards:

• Georgia Sportswriters Association: Furman Bisher Award for Sports Writing, Georgia Sportswriters Association, 2004
• Georgia Press Association: 2nd Place for Serious Column Writing, Georgia Press Association, 2004
• Georgia Sportswriters Association: 1st Place for Sports Column Writing, Georgia Sportswriters Association
• Georgia Press Association: 2nd Place for Religion Coverage, Georgia Press Association, 2003