ABOUT ME

I'm a freelance journalist based in Seattle. I love journalism for the opportunity to explore so many different niches and worlds, but I particularly like to write about science, the environment, and adventure.

I got a B.S. and M.S. from Stanford University’s program in Earth Systems, with emphases in ocean sciences and environmental journalism. During that time I also got my hands dirty with field work in Chilean Patagonia, the Peruvian Amazon, the Tropical Pacific, and a summer of scuba diving in Monterey Bay. 

Since then, in addition to writing stories of my own, I've helped with research for features that appeared in The New York Times Magazine and The New Republic. I contributed in-the-field reporting to both Robert Draper's narrative and the multimedia components for National Geographic Magazine's story "The Last Chase," which won the 2014 Ellie National Magazine award for multimedia. I was one of the first fellows in Grist's new program for emerging environmental reporters, where I learned about the day-to-day of writing for the internet and how to crack jokes about something as depressing as what's going on with the environment. As a freelancer, I have reported and written for NationalGeographic.com, blogged for Smithsonian.com, done profiles of local travel destinations for RootsRated as well as far-flung ones for Jungles in Paris, and am the science correspondent for the local Seattle news site Crosscut.com.

I'm also an avid climber, runner, and travel junkie. My biggest claim to fame is that I was once the youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits (the highest mountain on each continent), which I completed in 2007 at age 18 -- you can find me in the 2009 and 2012 editions of the Guinness Book. I have given talks about what it's like to be a teenage mountaineer to audiences such as Maria Shriver's Conference on Women, Science Online Teen, and TEDx Midwest youth.

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