Journalism Experience
North Carolina Newspapers in Education, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Social media editor (September 2011– present)
Assisting the state’s NIE coordinator with All Things Voting, a 2012 elections project aimed at increasing civic literacy and participation among youth. Responsible for creating website to share elections news, conducting social media training with teachers and engaging with students through social media. Will train and assist students chosen to attend and report on the 2012 Democratic convention.
The Daily Tar Heel, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Social media consultant (December 2010 – present)
Worked with the advertising department to offer social media services to advertisers. Provided consulting services to the paper’s first client.
Community manager (May 2010 – May 2011)
Responsible for community outreach and social networking efforts for the most “liked” college paper on Facebook. Increased interactions on Facebook by 126 percent and overall fans by 70 percent over the previous six months. Taught staff social media best practices.
Managing Editor for Online (May 2009 – May 2010)
Member of three-person newsroom leadership team that oversaw daily operations for a staff of about 200. Responsible for longterm planning and directing online coverage, including launch of new Drupal-based website in August 2009. Paper earned second place in the N.C. Press Association’s general excellence awards for its division, becoming the first college paper ever to win the award.
Managing Editor for Print (May 2008 – May 2009)
Responsible for daily newsroom operations for a staff of about 200. This includes helping the editor-in-chief lead daily meetings, editing stories for content, clarity, accuracy and AP style and coordinating coverage with writing and visual desks to create packages for both daily and long-term stories in print and online.
City Editor (January 2008 – May 2008)
Responsible for overseeing coverage of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County and a staff of about 30. Part of staff entry awarded first place in the N.C. Press Association’s spot news awards for its division.
The News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
City desk intern (May 2011 – August 2011)
Covered spot news and cops. Wrote consumer interest stories about AT&T cable boxes and noise concerns at a new amphitheater. Continued freelancing for the paper after the internship.
The Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla.
City desk intern (May 2010 – August 2010)
Robert Pittman Scholar. Covered spot news, cops, courts and city government. Wrote about a crackdown on bikini bars, pool closures and the evolving downtown business climate.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, Ark
Metro desk intern (May 2009 – August 2009)
Covered spot news, cops and city government. Pitched several enterprise stories that ran on A1 of the state edition. Stories were routinely noted among the paper’s top 10 in the deputy managing editor’s daily critique.
The Salisbury Post, Salisbury, N.C.
General assignment intern (May 2008 – August 2008)
Peggy Allen community newspaper scholar. Covered spot news, cops and courts.
The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C.
General assignment intern (May 2007 – August 2007)
Covered spot news, cops and courts. Wrote feature stories covering the U.S. Women’s Open. Helped produce a daily Women’s Open tab.
Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
B.A. in history (December 2012)
Elective journalism coursework: Community Journalism, Online Newswriting and Editing, Southern Politics: Critical Thinking and Writing, News Editing, News Writing, Features Writing, Latino Media Studies and Introduction to Mass Communication Law
Awards and honors
First place, 2011 Associated Collegiate Press Design of the Year (Infographic)
Awarded for “Connecting the Dots.” Judges said the piece did “a masterful job of explaining a very complex story, showing the folks who are wrapped up in the mess and just where they currently stand in the investigation. These kinds of diagrams are difficult to pull off well. This example does it about as well as it can be done.”
First place, 2010 North Carolina College Media Association awards (Design)
Awarded for “Connecting the Dots” infographic.
2010 Robert Pittman Scholar
The award honors Pittman, The St. Petersburg Times’ editorials editor from 1964 to 1991.
2008 Peggy Allen Community Newspaper Scholar
Awarded to a student at the University of North Carolina with an interest in community journalism.
Skills
Audio and video editing
Proficient with Audacity and basic audio recorders. Experienced with Final Cut Pro.
Visuals
Proficient with Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Comfortable with Nikon and Canon D-SLR cameras.
Computer-assisted reporting
Proficient in CAR and database analysis using Excel.
Online/Multimedia
Proficient in HTML, Google Analytics, Chartbeat, CoveritLive, Tumblr, Google Fusion Tables, basic Flash, SIMILE code and Google Maps. Experience with Drupal, WordPress and proprietary content management systems.
Conferences and training
N.C. College Media Associatio
Feb. 20, 2010
Getting Started in Business Journalism
A conference for students interested in a career in business journalism. Organized by the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Carolina Business News Initiative. Held at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.
Oct. 22-24, 2009
Associated Collegiate Press College Media Convention, Austin, Texas
Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2009
Holding Power Accountable
One of nine UNC journalism students selected to attend. Retreat offered small group discussions with professional investigative reporters about interviewing, reporting and writing public interest stories.
Aug. 22-24, 2008
Seen in and around
Three papers. Three strong front-page visuals
Charles Apple highlighted the front-page design that accompanied my News & Record story on the Greensboro Bear.
May 26, 2011
Speaker, the N.C. Press Association’s 2011 Newspaper Academy
I led a session for North Carolina reporters on ways to engage with audiences online.
April 26, 2011
Panelist, N.C. Open Government Coalition Sunshine Day
I spoke on a panel about The Daily Tar Heel’s role in pursuing records from UNC related to the NCAA investigation. The focus was primarily on the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act and its impact on journalists.
March 17, 2011
UNC SMART Conference
I spoke on a panel about ways to find value in Twitter.
Feb. 26, 2011
Woodward says 8:15 p.m. is the best time to show up unannounced at a source’s house
Jim Romenesko linked to my livetweet of a Bob Woodward speech at Duke University.
Oct. 28, 2010
Daily Tar Heel diagrams the UNC football scandal
Charles Apple wrote about the Connecting the Dots infographic.
Sept. 23, 2010
The Charlotte Observer’s Social Media Conference
I led two sessions – Social Media 101 and Having Fun with Social Media.
Jan. 23, 2010
The future of journalism
I talked about journalism with Robin Young and two other journalism students on Here and Now.
May 6, 2009