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I'm a reporter originally from Arlington, Texas. I graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a BS/MS in Journalism and Political Science. Find my most recent work below, or see my favorite articles under the 'Featured Work' tab.

LNP/LancasterOnline •

'They have the work ethic': Lancaster city nonprofit gives at-risk youth support, tools to succeed

Jonathan Berlingeri is a lead technician at Smokestack Masonry in East Lampeter Township, where he makes $32 an hour. But his path getting there wasn’t easy.
When he was 17, Berlingeri was convicted of burglary, robbery and assault, and he spent two months on house arrest.
After Berlingeri completed his house arrest, his probation officer ordered him to join the Bench Mark Program, a nonprofit gym that provides mentorship to at-risk youth in Lancaster County.
LNP/LancasterOnline •

E-town school earns national award

Elizabethtown Area High School is one of three high schools in Pennsylvania recognized this year by the U.S. Department of Education with a Blue Ribbon award for academic achievement.
Created in 1982, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle and high schools each year for academic achievement or for closing achievement gaps among student groups.
The department announced Tuesday the 353 schools honored this year, 13 of which are in Pennsylvania...
LNP/LancasterOnline •

First responders prepare as lithium-ion battery incidents rise in Lancaster County

Garden Spot Fire Rescue thought it was heading to an ordinary structure fire in East Earl Township when it responded to a call on March 3.

“(When) crews came onto the scene, it seemed like (a) small fire – light smoke showing, minimal concern,” said Nick Good, the fire department’s public information officer. “And within, I’d say, 10 minutes, visibility had dropped to zero.”

Crews quickly realized the building was being used to store lithium-ion batteries and, ultimately, nine different fire departments were called in to help with the fire, along with hazmat teams from Lancaster and Lebanon counties and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The Hill •

Some students see danger in Youngkin’s policies on transgender students

FAIRFAX, Va. — When recent Fairfax High School graduate Beatrice Stotz considers Virginia’s new education policies on transgender students, she thinks about a friend of hers whose parents aren’t supportive of her gender identity.

Among Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) recently finalized policies restricting the rights of transgender students is a prohibition on school districts creating policies to withhold information about students’ gender identity from unsupportive parents.

Stotz, who is
LNP/LancasterOnline •

Lancaster businesses offering special deals for Indie Retail Week

When Ted Boucard and Elizabeth Peters opened Read Rose Books in July 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, taking part in Lancaster City Indie Retail Week helped them feel connected with the Lancaster business community.

“It was just a great time to get connected with the other businesses in the area and also with all the people who are in Lancaster city who love to support small businesses,” Peters said.

This year will be the vintage book store’s fourth year participating in Indie Retai
LNP/LancasterOnline •

CHOP's Lancaster specialty care office moves locations

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Lancaster specialty care office has moved to a new space in Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health’s Suburban Pavilion in East Hempfield Township.

The new CHOP Specialty Care, Lancaster office at 2104 Harrisburg Pike, Suite 300, opened Aug. 1.

CHOP previously provided specialty care in two separate locations within the Suburban Pavilion, but office manager Gina Bobb said it was hard on staff to be in two different places, so they moved to a combined locati
USA TODAY •

In Oklahoma, Native American women struggle to access emergency contraception

TULSA, Okla. — When Apollonia Piña, a citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, needed Plan B four years ago, she turned to the Indian Health Care Resource Center of Tulsa, where she received her primary care. But the pharmacist there told her they didn’t carry emergency contraception.

“I was like, ‘Oh, why not?’ And she goes, ‘Because we’ve just decided not to carry it, and we will never carry it,’” Piña said. “She was kind of gloating about it.”

Piña also tried calling a health clinic run
LNP/LancasterOnline •

'I can be Walt Disney': Meet the new owner of Strasburg's Choo Choo Barn

It all started with a chance meeting at a model train auction.

Linda Groff, then owner of the Choo Choo Barn, Strasburg’s famous model train layout, was at a February auction at the Horst Auction Center in Ephrata to buy merchandise for the Barn’s accompanying hobby store.

It was there that she met model train enthusiast Gary Russell. Their meeting couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Since her husband Tom Groff’s death in 2019 at age 69, Linda Groff and her daughter, Kristi Largoza, h
LNP/LancasterOnline •

Original President says she's retiring

Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences President Mary Grace Simcox, the college’s first and only president, has announced she will retire at the end of the year after serving in the role for 22 years.

Simcox plans to depart the college Dec. 31. The private four-year college in East Lampeter Township that specializes in nursing and health sciences is scheduled to become part of St. Joseph’s University, a Jesuit Catholic University in Philadelphia, in January 2024. Simcox was originally set to retire two years ago, but she opted to remain on to see the merger through.
LNP/LancasterOnline •

Lancaster County pediatricians urge parents to make sure kids vaccinated for COVID-19, flu

Area pediatricians are urging parents and caregivers to make sure their children are up to date on vaccines as public health officials warn of a possible surge of COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this winter.
Ideally, school-age children who haven’t yet received a bivalent COVID-19 booster should get it at least two weeks before school starts to give them time to build up immunity, said Dr. Vinitha Moopen, a pediatrician at WellSpan Family & Pediatric Medicine – Rothsville in
The Hill •

White House wants Native American health care funding baked into law

On the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which straddles the border between North and South Dakota, people line up at 6 a.m. in the freezing winter, hoping to get one of just four dental appointments.

“If you don’t get those four, you’re out, you don’t get it,” said Janet Alkire, chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, who described the scene at an April hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs.

And the lack of adequate medical care extends well be
The Hill •

Chinese Americans fight back against bans on buying property

Asian Americans are fighting back against what they see as discriminatory efforts to ban Chinese citizens from buying property in certain states.

While supporters of these bills cast their policies as targeting malign influence from the Chinese Communist Party, Asian Americans and their advocates worry the bills are only fueling xenophobia and unfairly blocking access to the American dream.

The battle is raging in Florida, where a new law targets Chinese citizens, and in other states, like Tex
The Hill •

Lawmakers struggle to recognize AI-generated emails, study finds

Since OpenAI launched its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, ChatGPT, in late 2022, it has raised concerns about how the technology could impact everyday life. A recent study from Cornell University addressed one of the latest dilemmas plaguing skeptics when it suggested AI could open up new ways for malicious actors to manipulate representative democracy.

Researchers at Cornell wanted to see if it would be possible to influence lawmakers by using AI to generate fake constituent emails. The
The Hill •

How US farmland became a battleground in the fight against China

Chinese investors own about .03 percent of America’s farmland, according to federal data. But their land purchasing is becoming a major issue as politicians at the state and federal level ramp up their fight against perceived threats from China.

In the past couple of months, lawmakers in more than two dozen states have passed or considered legislation restricting Chinese purchases of U.S. farmland.

And former President Trump has promised that if he retakes the White House, he will ban Chinese
The Hill •

Medicare, FDA urged to press ahead with new Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi

Patients, lawmakers and Alzheimer’s advocates are pushing for Medicare to fully cover a new drug for treating early stage Alzheimer’s.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to Eisai’s Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi in January. The drug has been shown to moderately slow the progression of the disease in its early stages.

However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will cover the medication only for patients participating in data-gathering registries. CM
The Hill •

Save Our Sequoias Act divides environmental groups

The Save Our Sequoias Act is sponsored by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and has support from both sides of the aisle. But it is dividing environmental groups, some who think it would do more harm than good.

Giant sequoias, which can live for more than three thousand years and grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in central California, are facing an unprecedented threat from wildfire.

In the past couple years, nearly one-fifth of the oldest and largest giant s
Inside Climate News •

German Leaders Promise That New Liquefied Gas Terminals Have a Green Future, but Clean Energy Experts Are Skeptical

WILHELMSHAVEN, Germany—In the steel-gray North Sea waters of the port of Wilhelmshaven floats an impressively long tanker, the German government’s answer to the nation’s energy crisis.

The Höegh Esperanza, sprawling the length of three football fields, is what’s known as a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit. It’s a modified tanker ship that sails to different countries where it converts liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from transport ships back into a gaseous state. This gas can then be inj
The Hill •

Lawmakers face off over GOP effort to ease return of migrant children

House Judiciary lawmakers sparred Wednesday over a Republican proposal that would empower law enforcement officials to quickly send unaccompanied immigrant children back across the border.

Republicans argued their proposal, part of a larger GOP immigration package the House Judiciary Committee advanced last week, would remove incentives for children to come in the first place. Democrats, however, said the harsh immigration policy could only put children in further danger.

The debate over how A
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