“A Rising Threat”
Episode 4, State of Emergency documentary series
I directed the finale episode of News21’s award-winning, four-part documentary series on natural disaster recovery and response. “A Rising Threat” focuses on how flooding is reshaping life in rural America and small coastal towns, where communities historically built around the water are now losing their livelihoods to it.
🏆 News21’s State of Emergency project earned multiple awards, including the 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for College Journalism and the top student award for Investigative Reporters & Editors. The project was also recognized by Online Journalism Awards, Editor & Publisher Magazine, the Broadcast Education Association and the Rocky Mountain Student Production Emmys.
“En la frontera de un nuevo futuro: jóvenes venezolanos en Perú”
I produced this mini-documentary from the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border to explore how Venezuelan youth feel a mix of optimism and apprehension about starting their new lives in Peru. The video features an NGO, World Vision Perú, that helps young people acclimate to their new home. (This is the Spanish version; click here for the English version.)
🏆 This video earned the first-place award for Online/Digital News Videography in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 11 in 2019. It is part of the larger project Seeking Stability: Venezuelans in Peru, produced by the Cronkite Borderlands Initiative and also honored by SPJ.
“Cattle grazing on Arizona state trust land”
I produced this mini-documentary for The Arizona Republic/AZCentral. The video is part of an investigative report I contributed to, about how Arizona charges ranchers less than any other Western state for grazing cows on state-owned land. Since revenue from selling or leasing this land goes to public education, some say schools are losing out to ranchers.
🏆 This project was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Region 11 and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW).
"Hortencia is a Dreamer in Pittsburgh, standing up for the embattled DACA program"
I produced this video for PublicSource to provide a glimpse into the life of one young Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, whose parents brought her to Pennsylvania from Mexico as a three-year-old. Hortencia believes the DACA program is a benefit to the U.S. government, and should be sustained.
"A reason for recovery"
I co-produced this video for PublicSource as a component of the award-winning story by Jeffrey Benzing: "Holly: One face of the national heroin crisis."
🏆 This project was honored by the Society of Professional Journalists' Keystone Chapter in 2015.
"Migration is Movement: Pittsburghers at the border wall”
I produced this video about a group of 53 people from Pittsburgh who traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border in Nov. 2018 to join SOAWatch in protesting border wall expansion, among other things. The activists’ journey took place before the start of the partial government shutdown that began in Dec. 2018, now the longest in history. The shutdown was largely defined by elected officials' failure to come to an agreement about whether or not to expand the border wall.
“Meet Rob Jackson, Arcosanti resident”
I produced this video to explore life at Arcosanti, a unique living community about an hour north of Phoenix, Arizona.
"Having a voice"
I co-produced and edited this video for PublicSource about how Vaughan Thomas, who has ALS, uses a speech-generating device called "Tobii" to communicate with his family and friends via text messaging and the Internet.