Image by John Hook for FLUX Hawai‘i
My writing has been published by the New York Times, NBC News, the Guardian, BuzzFeed News, Spectrum News, Gizmodo, Slate, the San Francisco Chronicle, FLUX Hawaiʻi, Honolulu Magazine, and others.
Currently, I am a digital journalist with Spectrum News who covers the Hawaiian Islands. I have reported on everything from the Red Hill fuel leaks to beach erosion. I am especially interested in biodiversity, environmental justice and climate change issues, especially those being experienced firsthand in Pacific island nations, states, and territories.
For more than six years, I was the Night Editor for BuzzFeed News. I reported and edited breaking news from Honolulu with a team based around the world. I used on-the-ground reporting, social media and government records to uncover stories. My reporting tackled Hawaii’s false missile alert, the volcano eruption on the Big Island, and a hurricane that flooded multiple parts of the state.
I also previously worked as the Adviser for the student media program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where I mentored young journalists and taught about the responsibility of the press in relation to the University community it serves.
I grew up in Hawaiʻi and started my career as a Society of Professional Journalist Fellow at Honolulu Magazine. I earned a MA in Journalism at Columbia University in New York and a BA in English and Psychology at Oberlin College in Ohio.
In my spare time, I’m a flower farmer at Tantalus Botanicals — a boutique farm and floral company that I started with my husband and our dog on the property where I grew up.