Photo by Bert Jester

Currently, I am working toward my Masters in English literature at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, with a focus on Modernism. At UTK, I serve as a graduate teaching assistant for the English Department’s First Year Composition program, a tutor at the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center, public relations assistant for the English Department, and managing editor of Grist, a literary and arts journal run by UTK’s creative writing graduate students. During my time here, I hope to expand on the research I worked on for my undergraduate thesis on Jean Rhys’ 1934 novel Voyage in the Dark.

Previously, for nearly three years, I covered wage and hour law, employment discrimination, and benefits on a national scale for Law360’s Employment Authority newsletter. At Law360, I wrote about legal cases concerning, and became fluent in, state, city, and national employment laws, particularly the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. On the state level, I gained significant experience covering the California Labor Code and Private Attorneys General Act, New York Labor Law, and the Washington state Equal Pay and Opportunities Act. I also wrote about cases involving or challenging U.S. Department of Labor regulations and federal law exemptions, like the Federal Arbitration Act’s exemption for transportation workers.

Before that I lived and worked in South Dakota reporting for both the Rapid City Journal and the Pierre Capital Journal; the stories I wrote during my year there have been published in over 30 different publications nationwide.

In South Dakota, I reported on the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Dakota State Legislature & Governor Kristi Noem, the trial and attempted impeachment of State Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, multiple school districts, Indigenous issues, environmental issues, marijuana legalization, and more.

I graduated magna cum laude in May 2020 from Washington College in Maryland. While a student, I served as Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper, The Elm, for two years. Additionally, I interned at the Kent County News and the Washington Blade, a local weekly and a national LGBTQ weekly, respectively.

Upon graduation, I was named a finalist for the Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary prize in the country, and I won the Maureen Jacoby Prize for strong potential for future success in the field of editing and publishing.