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I
am a PhD student in journalism/
mass communications at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, where I teach a range of undergraduate journalism courses. Prior to grad school, I was a reporter at The Vindicator, the daily newspaper in Youngstown Ohio.
My hobbies include winemaking and working on my classic VW Dormobile camper. Once in a great while I write a book review.
Inside you can find:
Ancient story about me in Cleveland Jewish News
Pictures of my cats Sally and Daisy.
Instructions to make your own wine
Tips for beating a speeding ticket
Contact me:
10 Herrold Ave.
Athens, OH 45701
(330) 647-4298
About
MeAfter getting a B.A. in English literature from Swarthmore College in 1994, I moved to San Francisco, where I worked as a room service waiter at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel , and wrote for a neighborhood weekly (The Noe News) and a trade magazine (Beverage Industry News) on the side. About a year later, I left the West Coast for Cleveland and an appointment with VISTA, the domestic Peace Corps program. (The Cleveland Jewish News did this story about my work.)
After finishing my first 5k run in Nov. 2005
My year as a VISTA Volunteer left me skeptical about the government and ready for journalism. I started off covering Ashtabula County government for Gazette Newspapers, in Jefferson, Ohio. About six months later I was promoted to editor of the Pymatuning Area News, a small, weekly newspaper with offices on the main square of a Andover, Ohio. Being a small town newspaper editor was tremendous fun. I wrote stories, took pictures, edited copy from correspondents, designed pages and even pasted on the ads. After three years, yearning to improve my skills and live in a bigger place, I shipped off to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
After Columbia, I worked full-time as a freelancer for almost a year. Two steady employers were AOL Digital City Cleveland and Petplanet.com, both of which had me on contract to provide content every week. I also worked as a freelance fact-checker at Good Housekeeping Magazine and as a temp on the copy desk of the Erie (Pa.) Times-News.
In March, 2000 I took a job as a reporter at the Youngstown Vindicator. The Vindicator had an aggressive watchdog attitude at the time, and the Mahoning Valley was a great place to be a reporter. My first major project for the paper involved compiling a computer database of county building department records. Analysis of the database led to the conclusion that most homes constructed in Mahoning County the previous year were not fully inspected as required by law. The story resulted in hearings and the reorganization of the county building department. I also covered the release of 2000 Census data for the paper. In 2001, I was transferred to a bureau in Warren, Ohio to cover Trumbull County politics. After receiving an anonymous tip, coworker Peggy Sinkovich and I began an in-depth examination of purchasing practices by the county. By tabulating stacks of invoices and budget records we found evidence of overcharging and what appeared to be phantom purchases by the county. The stories prompted several criminal investigations and the conviction of the county maintenance director, the mayor of a nearby town, and a half-dozen suppliers for bribery and theft-related charges. While on that beat I also exposed a sweetheart insurance contract that was costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. A list of awards for all these stories is here.
In November, 2004 the Newspaper Guild unit representing about 100 editorial and circulation employees at the Vindicator went on strike over issues including health care and use of company cars for paper delivery. I was not a particularly active member of the union, but after the strike was called I was picked by the editorial staff to co-edit the strike paper, The Valley Voice. We distributed between 30,000 and 50,000 copies weekly during the nine-month strike. I also built and maintained the paper's web site, www.valleyvoiceonline.com.
Working on the strike paper made me realize how much I enjoyed working collaboratively and coaching reporters. I also realized that I wanted to work on more ambitious research projects. In September 2005 I started the PhD program in journalism at Ohio University, where I've been studying communication theory, journalism history and a lot of economics. I'm preparing to write a dissertation on how LSD was sold through the media (straight and hip) in the 1950s and 1960s. A related paper, connecting the positive portrayal of LSD in Time magazine with the publisher's use and advocacy of the drug, won top Magazine Division student paper at this year's Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications conference.
As well as my dog, Molly, whose pictures are all over the site, I have
two cats, 
and
.
For fun I make wine with my dad (we started in 2003 after I wrote this story about home wine making for Ohio Magazine) and ride my bike.
My bike parked by a fence in Belgium.