Portfolio
Feature Writing
Father, son shaping history (pdf)
The Scranton Times, Scranton, Pennsylvania
The story of a father who inspired his son to join the fire department – and then to preserve its history.
Finding a Way Home (pdf)
The Sunday Times, Scranton, Pennsylvania, March 6, 2005
This story required sensitive, patient networking to earn the trust of dozens of homeless people and their advocates. In it, I strove to give a realistic glance into the daily struggles faced by the homeless and an account of local agencies’ approach toward ending homelessness.
Couple taking walk for March of Dimes (pdf)
The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pennsylvania, April 30, 2006
Writing this article about a fundraiser introduced me to a family that was supporting a cause and celebrating a milestone.
Suffer the children (pdf)
Sunday Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas, October 5, 2003
An enterprise report that tracked the rise of child abuse cases in and around Wichita Falls. The result was a powerful look at the causes, the human consequences, and the frustratingly slow process of attacking the root causes of child abuse.
Deadline Writing
Flood-weary Plot Swamped Again (pdf)
The Sunday Times, Scranton, Pennsylvania, September 19, 2004
The editor called early in the morning. Parts of the city were flooding and being evacuated. I caught a ride with a photographer and spent the day in the neighborhoods as the river overflowed.
Man raids strip club with bomb (pdf)
Sunday Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas, December 8, 2002
The call came over the scanner: Strip club; man with a bomb. It was the first time I encountered witnesses who offered their real names – and their stage names. It was, of course, a serious story – and got serious play with the Associated Press.
Daily Journalism
Apologies link bank robber to several heists (pdf)
The Scranton Times, April 30, 2004
The cops wouldn’t say whether several bank robberies were related. I started comparing the descriptions, and noticed overlapping characteristics. The robber apologized early on. So I started asking about that, and police finally admitted the link. They had a serial robber on their hands.
Teenager remembered as carefree (pdf)
Times Record News, Wichita Falls, Texas
Petrolia is one of those small town where everybody knows everyone. The morning after this accident, I spoke with someone at the general store and I quickly had the memories from the young man’s friends.
Support refunds won’t be in the mail soon (pdf)
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus, Ohio, December 10, 2001
The first article I wrote at the Statehouse Bureau covered how child support advocates wanted the state to speed up child support payments that were improperly withheld.
Columns
Letter from the Editor (pdf)
Lackawanna Historical Society Journal, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Spring 2009
I’ve edited the Lackawanna Historical Society’s newsletter since 2008. This short note to readers introduced the spring 2009 issue, which featured articles about defining events that happened 50 years earlier.
Tuition may be sole funding for new plan (pdf)
The Lantern, Columbus, Ohio
One of a series of columns that won the Mark of Excellence award for General Column Writing in Region 4 in 2000. I wrote this column to question how Ohio State planned to pay for the academic plan it had recently released.
Promotional Materials
Sons of the American Revolution recruitment brochure (pdf)
As registrar for the Northeast Chapter in 2007, I took the initiative to boost recruitment and awareness of our group through production of colorful and informative tri-fold brochures. This item was originally designed in Microsoft Publisher.
Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society program (pdf)
The Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society asked me to help produce several programs and booklets. This simple program, originally designed in Microsoft Publisher, was produced for a one-act play, The Pullman Porter, that the ELDCPS presented in October 2009.
Lackawanna Historical Society Holiday Invitation (pdf)
I’ve done editing, layout, and design work for the Lackawanna Historical Society since December, 2007. This invitation to the annual Holiday Open House was produced in Adobe InDesign.
Analysis
Alumni Demographics (pdf)
I initiated an analysis of demographics of more than 25,000 alumni when I worked at a private university. This is a short excerpt of the longer report, but it shows how I broke down home states, degree-granting colleges, and the generational split of the alumni. The full analysis was used to project how alumni would respond to different programs and methods of online communication.
