Writer/Editor/Storyteller
I am a senior staff writer at Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit that sues polluters who threaten our health and environment. Previously, I worked as an editorial assistant at Plenty magazine and as a freelance journalist. My writing has appeared in several publications including Grist, Scientific American, Environmental Health News and Earth Island Journal. I believe in the power of storytelling to advance positive change in this world.
Portfolio
Ignored and Infuriated, Pawnee Stop Illegal Fracking Plans on Tribal Lands
It was a typical summer day in 2015 when Walter Echo-Hawk, a member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, discovered fracking operations near his home on Pawnee lands about 55 miles...
Grassroots Activists Just Proved Big Oil Can't Buy Its Way Into America's Hometowns
"Their first mistake was in trying to talk down to us," says Linda Garcia, a community leader in Vancouver, Washington, a scrappy, former timber town that sits just across the...
How Two Women Teamed Up to Take on the Chemical Industry-and Won
In the early 2000s, scientist Arlene Blum set out on a quest to reduce the amount of flame retardants in homes across America. Research showed that these chemicals-found in many...
Features
Happy Cows and Tighty-Whitey Tests: Welcome to the Future of Farming
Farmer and rancher Seth Watkins is a numbers guy-but with dirt under his fingernails and a heart as golden as the corn cobs on his 3,200-acre farm in southwest Iowa. In 1998,...
Tired of Dirty Energy Winning, This Government Insider Tipped Off Earthjustice
Imagine Los Angeles without smog. No dirty haze dimming streetlights, no film obscuring the Hollywood sign on the hill. Electric vehicles have evolved beyond status symbols;...
Barb Deardorff and other residents of Wheatfield, Ind., are concerned about coal ash contamination from a nearby power plant. Alex Garcia for Earthjustice For as long as she can...
What The 2018 Election Results Mean For The Environment
The likelihood that Congress will pass comprehensive new climate legislation in 2019 is slim, given Republican control of the Senate. However, there are lots of climate-related...
Turning the Tide on Gas Plants
The days following President Trump's election in 2016 were a turning point for many. Lilian Bello was no exception. At that time, Bello was a student at Hueneme High in Oxnard,...
Climate Change Forces Quinault Tribe to Seek Higher Ground
There's nothing more powerful than the ocean. Tribal member Larry Ralston is reminded of that simple fact every time he visits the 23 miles of foggy, windswept coastline on the...
A Fossil Fuel Company Tried to Put a Dirty Gas Plant on a Beautiful Coastline. It Failed.
This week, the city of Oxnard, California, became known for being more than just one of the strawberry capitals of the world. The coastal town, which lies between the more...
Island Revival: Water Returns to Hawaii's People
As Big Sugar plantations release their grip on the islands, local and Native Hawaiian communities are reclaiming their water rights and restoring their deep-rooted ties to the...
What You Should Know About Florida's Red and Green Slime Crisis
The red tide organism, Karenia brevis or K. brevis, produces toxins that can affect the central nervous system of fish and other vertebrate species who ingest them, causing them...
Earthjustice attorneys are trying to obtain medical monitoring for communities near military bases in southeastern Pennsylvania that were exposed to high levels of PFAS. For...
Court Victory Signals Hope for Communities Threatened by Toxic Coal Ash
Danville, Illinois, is a small industrial Midwest city hoping to transform its image from " the cheapest place to live in America" to a popular recreational tourism destination....
Why Patagonia Joined the National Monuments Fight
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended today that the Trump administration shrink the size of Bears Ears National Monument. If Trump follows Zinke's recommendation, the fight...
Grizzlies 'Saved His Life' and Now He Fights To Save Theirs
After naturalist and author Doug Peacock served two tours as a Green Beret medic in Vietnam, he went into the American wilderness to confront his demons. There, he closely...
Local Activists Put a Cork in Dangerous Gas Storage Proposal in New York's Wine Country
"Do you still have that bottle of champagne? Well, get ready to put it on ice!" After almost a decade of fighting a dangerous proposal to fill two underground salt caverns with...
Genetically engineered crops testing in Hawai'i has reinvigorated a larger debate over whether communities should have a say in what happens within their own borders. Malia Chun...
Europe leads effort to push for design of "green" drugs - Environmental Health News
The European Union requires environmental review of new drugs. Sweden leads the way, creating database so doctors can check whether medications are "green" before prescribing them.