About

I’ve been a journalist, editor and editorial strategist for over 20 years.

My coverage areas have been global and wide-ranging, with special interests in migration, urban development, LGBTQ issues, inequality and the media. My reporting includes the 2010 elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; an investigation into South Africa’s public broadcaster; a profile of the most notorious AIDS denialist in San Francisco; the first same-sex adoption in California; and the environmental destruction of a coal mining town in the Czech Republic.

I have created, written, edited and managed dozens of wide-ranging editorial projects – including books, guides, stories, conferences, series, a podcast, social media campaigns and pop-up newsrooms – for The Conversation Africa, Unbias the News, U.S. Right to Know, U.S. News & World Report, Daily Maverick, Mail & Guardian, Pan Macmillan, the Global Investigative Journalism Network and Duke University’s Menell Media Exchange. 

A 2013 media fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, I hold a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from the University of San Francisco and a BA in journalism from San Diego State University.

Communications | Fundraising | Consulting

Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism, Johannesburg/San Francisco

U.S. Right to Know, San Francisco

Media Hack Collective, Johannesburg/San Francisco

Daily Maverick, Johannesburg/San Francisco

Alibi Investigations, Johannesburg/San Francisco

The Conversation Africa, Johannesburg

Duke University’s Menell Media Exchange

Editorial

Managing Editor, Global Investigative Journalism Network, Johannesburg/San Francisco

Creator, One Night in Snake Park, 2018 – 2020

Nonfiction Editor, Pan Macmillan South Africa, Johannesburg

Executive Editor, Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg

Managing Editor, Maverick, Johannesburg

Assistant Producer, Carte Blanche, Johannesburg

Reporter/Assistant Editor, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco

Stringer, Agence France-Presse, San Francisco

Assistant Editor, Buzz Magazine, Los Angeles

Books

Contributor, Unbias the News: Why Diversity Matters for Journalism, Hostwriter, 2019

Co-editor, I Want To Go Home Forever: Stories of Becoming and Belonging in South Africa’s Great Metropolis, Wits Press, 2018

Contributor, Southern African Muckraking: 300 Years of Investigative Journalism, Jacana, 2018 

Co-editor, Writing Invisibility: Conversations on the Hidden City, Mail & Guardian, 2013

Teaching

Lecturer, Journalism Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 – 2017

Lecturer, Sol Plaatje Institute at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 2011 – 2014

Awards and Projects

Editorial Advisory Board Member, ReNEWS

Grantee, Taco Kuiper Investigative Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand

Collaborator, Dirty Laundry, Soma Art + Space

Winner, A Perfect Storm, Media Hack Collective

Winner, Creative Writing, “Confessions of a Walmart Shopper,” Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards

Finalist, Feature Writing, “In a Dainfern State of Mind,” Standard Bank Sikuvile Awards