I’m an investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic.

I write compelling narrative investigations to expose practices that hurt people and waste money. My stories captivate readers and prompt reforms.

For The Republic, I told the tale of Dr. Scott Brannan’s rise from a trailer home to med school, from prison to national prominence with a chain of clinics repeatedly accused of prioritizing profit and hurting patients. Our investigation was quoted in a U.S. Department of Justice civil complaint against the company, which partly corroborated our findings. After our investigation, the company closed about half its locations.

I exposed Arizona’s hidden doctor misconduct and revealed risky bond deals, prompting state lawmakers to pledge reforms. I spoke at IRE and NICAR on reporting process.

I came to Phoenix from the USA Today Network in New Jersey, a family of Gannett daily newspapers including the Asbury Park Press and The Record (Bergen County). In 2020, I partnered with ProPublica as part of their Local Reporting Network. We showed how New Jersey cops avoid accountability and profit from police unions, including more than $400,000 in unlawful sick time payments.

I produced investigative reporting that won national awards and prompted statewide changes including:

My investigative reporting is bolstered by original data analysis and award-winning video production.

I’m eager to pay forward the great advice I’ve gotten along the way. I’ve talked to students at Harvard Summer School, The University of Texas at Austin, The College of New Jersey, Kean University, William Paterson University, Stockton University, and Brookdale Community College.

Impactful investigative reporting

I showed how police car chases killed at least 63 people in the past decade and injured more than 2,500, nearly half of whom were bystanders and cops. The chases often start with traffic violations and usually don’t end with arrests. Our project called for the New Jersey attorney general to restrict police car chases and he did, saying: “We will no longer permit officers to respond to one danger by creating an even greater danger to the public.”

I exposed how New Jersey failed women police recruits on a physical test at a shocking rate after a rule change that made it impossible to become stronger during the academy. The head of the New Jersey police training commission said at a state Senate committee hearing prompted by my story that all police academies will open their doors to help recruits prepare.

I informed a prosecutor’s office that an officer they fought to fire – who they thought to be on desk duty – was actually out making arrests that they were prosecuting. I made hundreds of records requests to expose 20 officers on duty with known credibility issues.

I detailed how allegations by a cop found to be dishonest ruined one man’s life and sent two other people to jail. A spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office that sent those two men to jail said the office didn’t know about the officer’s dishonesty until after I inquired.

Following the stories about police credibility, the New Jersey attorney general implemented a policy for tracking and disclosing details on troubled cops in prosecutions made by his office, calling the move “an important first step.” He followed up by requiring all prosecutors to track witnesses who have been untruthful, including cops.

I was the lead writer on “Protecting the Shield,” a 2018 series that found gaps in New Jersey’s system for police accountability and prompted two state reforms and a change in the law.

I fought for public records to break the news that a police captain was on drugs and drunk when he lost control of his car and died in a crash. In ‘Protecting the Shield,’ we identified more than 100 towns that didn’t randomly drug test cops.

I broke the news that a borough spent $1.1 million to settle police whistleblower suits, prompting an upset in the race for mayor. Our series revealed more than $60 million spent to hush allegations of police abuse.

After the most shocking breaking news incident in our coverage area in a decade, I spoke exclusively with a killer cop to illustrate how authorities knew of trouble in his home long before he fatally shot his ex-wife. Following a lawsuit by the Asbury Park Press, the New Jersey attorney general released the officer’s secret internal affairs file. The documents confirmed our reporting that local law enforcement knew about trouble in the killer cop’s home long before the shooting.

The New Jersey attorney general credited ‘Protecting the Shield’ with shining a light on “issues that the public should be aware of,” as he mandated random drug testing for cops and strengthened internal affairs protocol. I followed up and found eight police officers failed random drug tests after the policy change.

Data

I’ve taught colleagues on Excel, I’m proficient with SQL and R, and I’m learning Python. I took a graduate-level applied statistics class at Penn State and I’m pursuing a master’s degree in data analytics at Georgia Tech. So far, I completed Intro Analytics Modeling.

I used Python in an analysis that revealed New Jersey and Newark lead the nation for racial disparity in police car chase deaths.

I fought for data across two governor’s administrations and used SQL to identify scores of cops who had previously been fired from public safety jobs. But I also called every department involved and found flaws in the records.

I used SQL to produce a comprehensive watchdog piece on convicts collecting state pensions, including one who was in prison, prompting the state to stop his payments.

Narrative writing

I wrote Long Fall, a prize-winning three-part narrative series on a New York Stock Exchange broker who lost his fortune, ran a $20 million Ponzi scheme and robbed a bank. I conducted an exhaustive series of prison interviews, corroborating key details through court records, experts, investigators, family members and victims.

Multimedia

My video on a man beaten by police after a car crash won a National Headliner award.

I produced a video on a father who died saving boys at a beach which won first place in the 2016 New Jersey Press Association awards.