I’m a freelance journalist and trainer currently based in Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital and commercial center, where I write frequently for the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor and Nikkei Asian Review. I edit South Asia and Africa coverage for Monitor Global Outlook, the Christian Science Monitor’s recently-launched, investor-focused news service.
When I'm not editing or reporting, I work as a trainer with local journalists in Myanmar’s newly open media scene, running workshops on economic and budget reporting with Internews and other organizations.
Before moving to Myanmar in 2013, I was Tax Editor at POLITICO in Washington, DC, where I helped launch a team of specialized reporters covering tax, fiscal policy and financial services issues on Capitol Hill.
Prior to joining POLITICO, I spent nearly a decade at Congressional Quarterly (now CQ-Roll Call), covering politics and economics on Capitol Hill. I was CQ's senior economic writer for four years, covering everything from the Wall Street bailout and the debt ceiling crisis to trade and the U.S.-China relationship, for which I received the National Press Club’s Sandy Hume award in 2010. In an earlier run at CQ, from 2000 to 2006, I covered the tax, budget and banking beats.
In between stints covering Congress, I set up shop in a sleepier capital city – Lusaka, Zambia – working as a freelance journalist from 2006 to 2008, writing for the Associated Press, the Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post and other news outlets. I reported on Zambian politics, China’s rise in southern Africa and Zambia’s female boxing champion – and did the thankless work of writing the occasional safari travel review. I also taught journalism classes at a Zambian college.
I graduated from Cornell University in 1998 with a degree in government and computer science and was an assistant sports editor on the Cornell Daily Sun, putting the sports section to bed three nights a week at Ithaca’s only morning newspaper. I earned a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 2007.
I grew up in Acton, Mass., and got my first byline covering high school sports for the Acton Beacon.
