I make stories
have impact.
Digital design studio
My role: Site design, illustration, project management
As a digital team leader, I design stories and series across the USA TODAY Network. This is a small sample of my work, focused on stories I’ve illustrated with photos and type. For individual national stories and local series, I’m also the project manager.
Example 1A: The series starts with a story about deaths in Texas day cares.
Example 1B: As the first story in the queue, the ‘project nut graf’ that starts with “The findings” is surfaced.
Example 2A: In this reader’s queue, that same story about deaths is fourth.
Example 2B: As fourth in the queue, that same story doesn’t show the ‘project nut graf.’
Unwatched
My role: Strategy, site design, project management
The problem: Longform journalism is still written for a print product. The mainbar and subsequent stack of stories assume we control readers movements like they’re flipping from page to page. But online, users click in from social and search to different links and bounce between stories as they please.
My solution: Any of the 12 stories in Unwatched could function as the entry point to the project and no story is dependent on understanding the piece before it. There are 12 places you could start and 479,001,600 ways you could read the whole package.
In collaboration with the reporting team, we wrote each story a ‘project nut graf’ that outlines the project’s scope and findings. Using cookies, which recognize returning visitors, the first story you click becomes your entry point with the ‘project nut graf’ and the first spot in your story queue. Every other story will hide the ‘project nut graf’ and rearrange your queue based on what you click next.
Reflection: The strategic build of this project needed an equally strategic distribution plan. It was difficult to assess the success when one story was still promoted as a traditional mainbar. It’s also worth considering the limitations of cookies, especially that the same user on different devices isn’t always recognized.
> It’s up to you
Note: This site is no longer supported after the merger between GateHouse and Gannett. Some functionality may be broken.
Example 1: Localized content for The Register-Guard in Oregon.
Example 2: Localized content for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio.
Predator pipeline
My role: Strategy, project management
The problem: The series — which details how the NCAA looks the other way as athletes punished for sex offenses play on — stretches from Oregon to Florida. As part of an overarching national team, I needed to get buy in from local newsrooms to pick up and promote the story, but those newsrooms were concerned content from the national team wouldn’t ring true with their audiences.
My solution: Surface 16 different versions of the story across the USA TODAY Network — one national and 15 localized to specific regions with athletes named in the investigation. The solution was complicated by the GateHouse and Gannett merger, which meant the combined company still operated across a handful of content management and publishing systems.
Reflection: With more than 260 daily newspapers in our network, 15 localized storylines doesn’t reflect the full breadth of Gannett markets. But for newsrooms that were able to highlight the local angle of an impactful national story — on the heels of which a congressional bill was introduced — it made a difference. “Simply awesome,” declared one editor, when I confirmed the localized content would appear automatically on their site, track with their analytics system and require no extra work on their end.
> Read the national story
Readers have a choice between a preloaded photo or their own.
Here, I’ve uploaded an image from my own living room.
Finalist for Scripps Howard Award in Multimedia Journalism
The shadow of wind farms
My role: Strategy, site design, data visualization, project management
The problem: This investigation into the wind energy industry highlights health concerns that stem from living near industrial turbines. One of those concerns is shadow flicker: the strobe-like flash of the sun passing behind the spinning blades of a turbine that can disorient and cause nausea. While some of our audience would undoubtedly be familiar with the effect, I wanted to build a sense of sympathy for those who weren’t.
My solution: I designed a simulator that dims and brightens to match a video of shadow flicker shared by a source. The simulator allows readers to upload their own image, ideally from inside their house, or to see the effect over a preloaded image of a living room.
Reflection: In an ideal world, we could have built this as a filter that connects automatically to the device’s camera and eliminate the extra step for readers to upload their own.
> Check it out
Note: This site is no longer supported after the merger between GateHouse and Gannett. Some functionality may be broken.
Example 1: The first trust nugget that surfaces in the story.
Example 2: Each nugget is limited to just a sentence or two.
Unaccountable
My role: Strategy, site design, project management
The problem: At the start of a second investigation into out-of-hospital births, I knew a standard ‘how we did it’ column wouldn’t cover the questions and criticism from readers after publish. Our team wanted to come out in front of that conversation and show how the story had come together.
My solution: In collaboration with Trusting News, we embedded questions about the reporting process into the story. The embeds, dubbed “trust nuggets,” then offer quick, straightforward answers, without forcing readers back to the FAQ page. To write each question, we looked at reactions on social and direct feedback from our first investigation into out-of-hospital births.
Reflection: This simple design lift brings transparency to the center of the project in a way that’s both informative and digestible. In collaboration with the development team, the nugget became a standard tool within our WordPress theme for easy use in the future.
> Read the story
> Read Trusting News
Print design studio
My role: Page design, art direction
I interned at the (now former) Gannett Design Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, for the summer of 2016. I worked on daily feature sections as well as special weekly products such as entertainment tabs and health magazines. I illustrated my own pages as needed and collaborated with editors across the region.
The Daily Orange
My role: Page design, art direction
The Daily Orange is the independent student newspaper at Syracuse University and one of the top student newspapers in the country. I ran the paper and nonprofit corporation as editor in chief for one year. I also worked as presentation director overseeing the visual staff, and as a design editor.
