Storyteller | Video Production Specialist | Content Strategist
I am a six-time Emmy Award winning journalist with extensive experience in video production from concept to completion. I’ve spent my career delivering engaging content on time and on budget for broadcast, digital and social media platforms, and my character-driven approach to storytelling has been recognized with a Peabody Award. After more than 20 years in network news, I know how to get things done and thrive on deadline. A firm believer in the power of collaboration, telling the stories of Chicago and the Midwest is my passion.
Recent Projects
In the spring of 2021, I collaborated with the CBS News Race and Culture Unit to produce a 7-minute segment focused on the descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre for a primetime special “Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy.” In the summer, I joined the team at NBC Sports in Stamford, CT to produce feature stories for the Tokyo Olympics.
Tulsa 1921: An American Tragedy (CBS News Primetime Special, May 2021)
A Day at the Races, Tokyo Live on Peacock (August 2021)
Olympic Moms, “The Olympic Zone,” NBC Sports (August 2021)
INSPIRING INDIVIDUALS
NBC Nightly News strives to end each broadcast with inspiring individuals and images, stories of people like Tammera Holmes who has dedicated her life to preparing African American kids for careers in aviation. To showcase her Aerostars program, I identified strong characters and visuals. My team followed students as they toured the control tower at O'Hare, sat in the cockpit of a 777, and flew with the local chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen. Finally, to underscore Tammera’s accomplishments we spoke with AeorStars alum Michael Hogue, a college student and trained pilot who has returned as an instructor to help his mentor inspire the next generation of Black aviators.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Aerostars’ Tamera Holmes (September 2018)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Keeping Jazz Alive (May 2018)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Paralympian Rico Roman (March 2018)
INEQUALITY IN AMERICA
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed, NBC News launched "Inequality in America," a network-wide series examining issues of racial justice. Covering the deaths of Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald, and more, I met families who shared the pain of losing a loved one to police violence. I also developed relationships with organizers demanding police reform who saw these deaths as the result of decades of racist policies. I approached the series as an opportunity to provide a national platform for their stories of Chicagoans striving to combat systemic racism, develop generational wealth, and build safer communities.
NBC NEWS ON QUIBI: Reiminaging Policing in Chicago (September 2020)
NBC NEWS ON QUIBII: The American Dream Denied (August 2020)
RURAL AMERICA
My commitment has always been to find the next story. While interviewing soybean farmers about trade with China, the conversation turned to struggling dairy farmers. Afterward, I set to work on a new piece, calling auction houses until I found the right family. Guy and Wendy Thoman opened up about the painful decision to sell their cows to save the farm that had been in Guy’s family for generations. Their concerns about a rise in farmer suicides inspired another story of loss. After her husband died by suicide, Brenda Statz began speaking out in hopes of reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness in rural communities. Since our story aired, Brenda’s program expanded and she’s been featured in the New Yorker.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Preventing Suicide in Farming Communities (September 2019)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Dairy Farm Crisis (March 2019)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Middle of Nowhere (May 2018)
TRAUMA AND VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO
After 17 years in New York, I moved back to my hometown in 2012 to produce for the NBC News Midwest Bureau. Sadly, that year Chicago saw more than 500 homicides and gun violence became my beat. After profiling victims, activists, and public officials for years, I joined the team from "All in with Chris Hayes" to produce an MSNBC town hall on the roots of the violence, and the outrage over the police killing of Laquan McDonald. In the following months, Trymaine Lee and I collaborated on a series of reports on systemic racism, violence, and trauma. Our reporting became the foundation for an hour-long special, “All in America: Chicago,” which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Trauma and Gun Violence (March 2017 )
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Why do people pick up a gun? (July 2017)
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES TOWN HALL: Chicago’s Darker Legacy (February 2017).
ECONOMIC COVERAGE
After the collapse of Bears Stearns in 2008, I jumped at the chance to cover the economy for NBC Nightly News. And while I was eager to be on the nation’s most important story, I was also more than a little anxious. As a theatre major at Northwestern University, I had never taken a single econ class. But I seized the opportunity to learn from the country’s foremost experts on economic policy and was fortunate to collaborate with the talented journalists at CNBC. Working with talented graphics artists, I strove to make even the most complicated financial concepts accessible. But at its heart, a really good economic story is about people doing whatever they can to stay afloat, and I enjoy talking to people about their work.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Is American Manufacturing Dead? (February 2017)
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: Explaining the Bailout (September 2008)
IN MEMORIAM
Working on NBC Nightly News I generally researched, wrote, and edited a story in a matter of hours. While it may sound macabre, I was always excited to get a call to produce an obit for someone who was still alive and kicking. It meant I could immerse myself in a subject and spend weeks sifting through archival footage and old interviews. These are some of my favorite profiles. There are more, but thankfully the others are sitting on a shelf while their subjects continue to lead their lives and enrich ours.
Larry Kramer 1935-2020
Toni Morrison 1931 - 2019