I am a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where I work on Co-Designing for Trust, a National Science Foundation-funded project that draws on workshops with teachers, librarians, journalists, and community members to develop initiatives to tackle the misinformation crisis. You can find out more about my C4T work here.

My research interests lie in connecting the dots between journalism, communication, information studies, and other disciplines to understand why misinformation is believed and what we can do to address the misinformation problem. This overarching interest has led me to research news literacy, media credibility and media trust, and social media. 

I am a productive researcher, with five peer-reviewed journal articles published in Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Social Media + Society, the Howard Journal of Communications, and the American Journal of Public Health, and one paper accepted to the prestigious CHI conference in human-computer interaction. I’ve also presented 15 peer-reviewed conference papers. My research experience includes almost three years’ work at UT’s Center for Media Engagement (CME), where I was lead graduate research assistant on the Civic Signals project.

Students and professors alike have remarked on my empathetic approach to teaching. I have worked as a teaching assistant for three courses: Social Media Journalism, Media Law, and Introduction to Global Media.

Before I began my academic career, I spent 15 years as a journalist and consultant, most recently writing about the media and science communication.  I was a frequent contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review and consulted regularly for the American Press Institute. Other outlets I’ve contributed to include Poynter.org, Newsweek, and Skeptical Inquirer.

I also have extensive experience writing about renewable energy, the environment, urban development, public policy, economic development and business. I’ve written hundreds of articles published in newspapers, trade magazines, general interest magazines, online and on interactive TV services. Outlets I’ve written for, in the U.S. and U.K., include sustainable business websites Environmental Leader, Energy Manager Today and Environment Energy Pro, the political and social issues magazine New Internationalist, satirical magazine Private Eye, satellite television company UKTV, and trade magazines Architectural Record, Windpower Monthly, Windpower Offshore, Regeneration & Renewal, Real Business and Real Finance.

Together with Amanda Warner, I am the creator of Post Facto, a game that teaches social media users how to fact-check news in their feeds.

I earned my B.A. in philosophy with honors from Wesleyan University and my M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri, and have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation at UT Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. I trained in magazine journalism at PMA Training, which is accredited by the U.K.’s Periodicals Training Council. In my spare time, I run and sing in a School of Rock band. I live in Dallas with my husband Will and our grouchy orange cat, Ranji.