Some of my work...
Final Witness
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Joe Doak is a vigil volunteer - he's trained to sit with dying patients to make sure no one dies alone.
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This story handled difficult subject matter in a sensitive way while illustrating the importance of people like Joe, who give so much of themselves to others.
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Photos by Chancey Bush. I did the interviews for the video and Chancey edited and produced the final cut.
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Click on the photo to read the story and here to view the video.
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Failure to Protect series
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My goal in reporting on children who died in the foster-care system was to determine exactly what happened, hold responsible parties accountable and shed light on the problems in the system that allowed these children to be placed in homes where they died after being removed from their homes.
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My contributions to this series involved months of digging for documents that were not subject to open-records laws, making connections and convincing relatives of children who had died in the foster system to give me information.
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This series won a first-place public service award, third-place best general reporting series from the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies competition, second-place public service award and second-place best series from the Colorado Press Association.
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Written with colleague Gabrielle Porter, graphics by Robert McLean.
Hope for Hemp
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My reporting on innovations and challenges in the hemp industry, published in a three-day series, focused on showing the intricacies of using, growing and manufacturing hemp as it operates in a somewhat gray area of the law, as it is technically the same plant as marijuana.
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Winner of first-place series from the Colorado Press Association and first-place general marijuana reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies competition. Photos by Gretel Daugherty and Christopher Tomlinson.
Public Lands Under Pressure
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I wrote the second installment of this series focused on the challenges public-lands managers face with increased visitation, dwindling resources and problems like vandalism and crime in remote areas. My reporting centered on problems with fossil theft on Bureau of Land Management property.
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This series, produced with colleagues Dennis Webb and Dale Shrull, won a first-place award for environmental reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies competition.
Dancing Queen
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This feature focuses on a teenage boy who lives in a conservative town and performs as a drag queen. The multimedia package was produced with photographer Chancey Bush (I conducted the interviews, she shot and edited the video).
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Click on the photo to read the story or here to watch the video.
Livestock Lost
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A bizarre tale of how a cattlewoman's trust and a handshake deal went terribly wrong and years later, she still doesn't have closure over the theft of her animals. Photos by Chancey Bush.