Reporter at KUNC
28 Years Old • Fort Collins
Tell us about yourself, your history and how you came to be where you are now.
My radio aspirations started in fourth grade, when I realized my dream of playing first base for the New York Yankees was far-fetched. After getting a journalism degree at Elon University in North Carolina, I started my radio career at KDLG in Dillingham, Alaska, where I hosted a nightly show about the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. Then I took a job with Aspen Public Radio and fell deeper in love with reporting on the environment, which led me to my current role at KUNC.
Explain your career, achievements and professional highlights.
I’m a reporter for KUNC, where I cover the Colorado River and water in the West for a network of more than 20 public radio stations across the southwest U.S. This beat has brought me to the tops of mountains, sandy beaches, sprawling fields of crops and the downtowns of some of our country’s largest cities. I write stories to help people in Northern Colorado understand how they’re connected to that larger system every time they turn on their kitchen faucet. My work is regularly featured on nationally syndicated programs from NPR.
In what ways do you give back to the community?
I love supporting local businesses. Fort Collins is full of locally owned shops and restaurants. Catch me at Mugs on a workday, Trailhead Tavern when 5 p.m. rolls around and at stores up and down College Avenue when it’s time to do some holiday shopping. Our community is stronger when we support businesses run by our neighbors.
What do you consider the biggest accomplishment or challenge you’ve overcome, either professionally or personally?
I’ve become an expert on the Colorado River despite knowing almost nothing about it four years ago. My current role is an exciting challenge: I’m required to not only understand complex water management issues, but I also have to understand them well enough to relay those ideas to listeners in a digestible way. I do that by interviewing some of the smartest people in the West and learning something new every day.
Tell us something unique about you.
I love snail mail. I keep in touch with friends around the country and the world through letters and postcards. In an age where so many of our photos, writings and memories only exist on screens, it’s nice to have someone’s thoughts and feelings written on something you can hold in your hands. Since I spend all day writing news, I find it refreshing to step away and write from the heart.
Where do you see yourself in five years? In 10 years?
Journalism has been my ticket to a life of travel and learning. I’m lucky enough to traverse Colorado and the West to meet interesting people and hear their stories. I hope to be doing the same a decade from now. Not everybody gets to make a living doing this, and I’d be grateful to keep a career in reporting for as long as I can.
What piece(s) of advice would you give to your younger self?
I’d tell him to keep being curious. I was obsessed with the natural world as a kid, but I took a turn away from science around high school and leaned hard into the humanities. Now I get to spend time outside and talk to scientists as part of my job. I’ve been reconnecting with my younger self because my work involves asking questions about the environment.
What is your favorite part of your job?
My favorite part of my job is learning something new every day. As a journalist, I have the ability to call up incredibly smart, accomplished and interesting people and ask them to explain complicated topics. I get to hear their insight and the stories of people whose lives are far different from mine, and I have the exciting challenge of boiling that all down into stories for the radio.
Why do you feel that reporting on water issues is important?
There is no life in Colorado without water, but there’s a complicated web of infrastructure and laws that shapes how it reaches us. By helping people understand the systems that bring them their water, I hope to make our community more informed and responsible when it comes to using water and voting for people and policies that manage our supplies.
Local business shoutout:
Kind, interesting and energetic people are what make this place so great, and my favorite local businesses are the places where we spend time together. For me, that’s Mugs during the day and Trailhead Tavern at night.
