Welcome to my website. I'm a writer and editor in the Washington, D.C., area with wide-ranging experience in journalism, science writing, public information and editorial project management.

I've worked on staff or as a contractor for National Geographic, The Washington Post, National Institutes of Health, American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Chronicle of Higher Education. For a decade I traveled regularly to Southeast Asia on editorial assignments at several international research organizations. Besides news and feature articles, my writing portfolio includes annual reports, press releases, newsletters, brochures, web text, essays and even legends for National Geographic maps.

My work has appeared in outlets such as online National Geographic News and Smithsonian.com, The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Science News, The Indonesian Observer, Potomac Review, Humanities and Ford Foundation Report. In early 2011, I helped launch the online Washington Independent Review of Books, for which I'm a senior editor and contributing reviewer.

I have a B.A. in English from Marietta College in Ohio, an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri and an M.A. in writing (creative nonfiction) from Johns Hopkins. My major awards have included a Nate Haseltine Fellowship in Science Writing, a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to Cape Town, South Africa, and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Today I do part-time editing while working on my first book, on 19th-century travel writer Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore and her role in the origin of Washington's first cherry trees. See my related website, which includes a video of her historic journey to Alaska in 1883.

To check out some of my recent pieces:

• Review of A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS for Washington Independent Review of Books

• Timely article on D.C. cherry blossoms and the Japanese tsunami on National Geographic's website

• Review of Ravenous: A Food Lover's Journey From Obsession  to Freedom for Washington Independent Review of Books