What I Cover
My reporting focuses on how influential groups — from government agencies to private companies — impact life in the region, particularly rural communities. I often spend time immersed in the places I cover, and I’m especially interested in examining conflicts over natural resources.
My Background
I’m a journalist who lives in New Mexico. Before joining ProPublica, I was a contributing editor at Outside and a contributing writer at The California Sunday Magazine, covering public lands, environmental issues and the U.S.-Mexico border. I have also written about the West for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, Scientific American and New York Magazine, reporting on nuclear weapons, Indigenous affairs and wildfire, among other topics. Last year, I wrote an investigation for ProPublica about the federal government’s mistreatment of wildland firefighters, which has contributed to an exodus within the workforce.
In 2019, I received the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, for deep reporting about underrepresented communities, and my writing has been anthologized in “The Best American Sports Writing” and noted by “The Best American Essays” and “The Best American Science and Nature Writing.” In 2021, I published my first book, “Brothers on Three,” about a historic basketball team from the community of Arlee, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. “Brothers on Three,” which investigates discrimination in college recruitment, was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick and won the Montana Book Award and the New Mexico-Arizona General Nonfiction Book Award.
