Over the course of my 30+ year career, I have held leadership positions at a wide variety of editorial operations across the media landscape, from network television news to documentary films to print and digital outlets, and most recently in podcasting. As executive producer over the last 10 years for multiple broadly-distributed and award-winning podcasts, I have led editorial oversight, new-show development, recruitment, budgeting, production, administration, strategy, and partnerships. I have taken podcasts from the germ of an idea, through piloting, to fully-formed, mature shows, including hiring staff; developing and managing multiple simultaneous production schedules; creating a sound and a voice for each show; training producers and hosts; and integrating with editorial and distribution partners. The most rewarding part of the job for me, as a lifelong journalist, has always been the content — working with writers, producers, hosts, and sound designers to shape scripts and mixes that take complex and dense material and make it understandable and engaging for a listening audience, but I also enjoy and excel at the strategic and operational work, and know they are just as integral to a show’s success as great audio storytelling. I lead with integrity, empathy, and a commitment to excellence.
In 2022, Audible and Fresh Produce Media recruited me to develop from scratch a weekly podcast around noted national security journalist Peter Bergen. When I joined I was a staff of one and the show was just an idea. In the Room with Peter Bergen became Audible’s first foray into the journalism podcast space and into the always-on podcast market. The show won a Signal Award for Best News & Politics podcast in its second year. I developed the show’s mission, format, and tone; created production processes and conventions; set editorial, quality-control, and fact-checking standards; led the greenlighting process; shaped story arcs; edited scripts; reviewed rough cuts; coached the host; mentored staff; and delivered consistently high-quality content on time and on budget for over 80 episodes. Each episode is a deeply reported, sound-rich listener experience, across a broad range of topics on national security broadly defined, from the Pentagon's bizarre history of stifling — and stoking — UFO panic to the massive surveillance system on our smartphones to how Afghanistan was lost to the Taliban — twice.
As executive producer of the Freakonomics Radio Network for seven years, I was responsible for editorial, operational, and strategic oversight. I led its evolution from a single podcast and public-radio show into a network — including a co-hosted chat show, an interview show, several narrative shows, and a live game show. I developed new show ideas; recruited and retained staff and freelancers; instituted production schedules and processes; oversaw all editorial and production operations; all while ensuring editorial excellence and brand integrity across the network. I developed marketing and editorial-partnership initiatives with The New York Times, BBC, Pushkin Industries, and public-radio stations around the country. Over my tenure the company more than doubled its listenership and vastly increased its revenue.
For over a decade I worked at ABC News — on breaking news, magazine shows, and ultimately as a producer of long-form projects and documentaries. My work chronicled the collapse of post-Cold War Somalia, the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a brewing mental health and education crisis among American boys, the rise and consequences of unmarried teen motherhood, the political battle over abortion (for which I won an Emmy), and a small group of brave women in West Africa fighting against societal norms and religious and government institutions to end female genital mutilation (for which I won a Peabody).
I served as series producer for this multi-part historical documentary about the history of American aviation and aerospace, including the dramatic human stories of the race to win WWII, beat the Soviets to the moon, and create the satellite technology that powers today's global economy and society. The series encompassed a century of archival footage and involved over 80 interviews, all of which were structured and edited into distinct, compelling narrative episodes.
I was the founding editor of nicknews.com, the website for the United States' premier kids' news program.
From the age of seven I wanted to be a journalist. I wrote for my middle school and high school newspapers, was a reporter for and then publisher of the Columbia Daily Spectator in college, and jumped right into my first job, at ABC News, five days after graduation.
Perhaps it's fitting that I now work in podcasting. When I was second grade, I would sit — with a cassette tape recorder by my side and, spread out in front of me, the most interesting articles in the local newspaper as well as the weather forecast — and record myself reading them aloud so my parents could listen to the news whenever and wherever they wanted. A pioneer of audio-on-demand!