Staff

I was born at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, but when I was 3, my family moved from Lawrence to southwest Kansas. I grew up in Liberal, and in 2000, I started at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., where I earned a bachelor's degree in English in 2004.

The first person I ever interviewed was Darin Headrick, my middle school principal when I was in sixth grade. He’s now the superintendent of Greensburg schools leading a rebuilding effort amid the devastating 2007 tornado.

Aside from my West Middle School newspaper class, I picked up my interest in journalism as a summer intern reporter at the Southwest Daily Times in Liberal. My editors joked about their method to teach me fairness and objectivity. I covered the school board while my dad started serving his first term.

After I graduated from Knox, I worked for one year as a reporter in Liberal until I returned to Lawrence to attend journalism graduate school at Kansas University. That July of 2005, I also began working as a part-time reporter at the Journal-World.

In June 2007, I started work at The World Company full-time, and I have mostly worked as a general assignment reporter, meaning two things: I get to either cover whatever I want or whatever my editors tell me to for our Web site, the newspaper and 6News.

In my spare time, I follow KU sports teams, try to tackle my reading list, and watch way too much football. I refuse to give up on the Kansas City Chiefs.

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I try to provide updates on court proceedings, political speeches and news.