Experience
EDUCATION
M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction 2009
Goucher College, Baltimore, MD
Focus: Historical Narrative Nonfiction
M.A. in English 2004
The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ
Focus: 20th Century American Literature
B.S. in English Education 1999
Penn State University, University Park, PA
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Contributing Writer December 2013-present
Smithsonian
Essayist of history and culture for Smithsonianmag.com
Contributing Writer November 2015-present
Feature writer for Mountain Home Magazine
Freelance Journalist December 2012-January 2016
WHYY/NewsWorks.org, Philadelphia, PA
Reporter and writer for the online news site of Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate WHYY
BOOK AND ANTHOLOGY PUBLICATIONS
we is got him 2011
Author of we is got him (The Overlook Press) the narrative nonfiction account of the first recorded ransom kidnapping investigation in American history
“Reconstructing Germantown” 2011
Philadelphia Memories: Reflections of the Keystone State
Ed. Rebecca Beardsall and Colleen Lutz Clemens
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Curriculum Writer and Workshop Facilitator Fall 2016-present
Mighty Writers, Philadelphia, PA
Contracted workshop facilitator for middle and high school students in Philadelphia’s public and private schools
Writing Instructor/Adjunct Professor
Penn State Abington Fall 2019
English Teacher 1999-2016
Council Rock North High School, Newtown, PA
Instructor and Mentor Teacher, 11th and 12th grade academic and accelerated classes
Educational Consultant July 2015-March 2016
Noodle.com
Consultant and writer for Noodle.com, a national educational service
Curriculum Writer Spring 2015
Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA
Curriculum Writer for the Bucks County Art Mobile, an integrative K-12 educational experience
Curriculum Writer Fall 2012-Spring 2013
Prestwick House, Inc., Wilmington Delaware
Writer of a high school curriculum unit to accompany Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart
Creative Writing Instructor 2001-2003; 2011
PA Writing and Literature Project, West Chester University, PA
Curriculum designer and instructor for summer writing students, grades 3-8
University Instructor Summer 2003
Cairn University, Langhorne, PA
Co-instructor, graduate course in integrated language arts, K-12
RELATED EXPERIENCE
Curator Fall 2015
Christ Church Neighborhood House, Philadelphia PA
Curator of The Salon at Christ Church, artistic events that united artists from different mediums
Co-Curator Spring 2014
Germantown Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA
Co-curator of exhibition entitled “Kidnapped: The Ransom Letters of Charley Ross, Lost and Found”
Writing Assistant Fall 2013
Writing assistant to Dr. David Kessler, Former Commissioner of the FDA
Author Presenter Fall 2011-Summer 2013
Presenter at author talks and book signings at over 32 bookstores, centers for the arts, colleges, schools and libraries in the Philadelphia area
Contributing Writer Spring 2012
Contributor of editorials to the Philadelphia Daily News, Nerve.com, The Bucks County Courier Times
Conference Presenter Fall 2010
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA
Writer/Presenter at the 2010 English Association of PA State Universities
Contributing Writer/Essayist 2009-2010
Contributed features, reviews and commentary to Phillyist.com
Research Assistant 2007-2009
Research assistant to Steve Luxenberg, former Washington Post editor, as he wrote Annie’s Ghosts (Hyperion 2009)
Conference Presenter Spring 2002
Hofstra University, Hampstead, NY
Writer/Presenter, John Steinbeck’s Americas: A Centennial Conference
ESSAY PUBLICATIONS
Smithsonianmag.com November 2020
"The Courageous Tale of Jane Johnson..."
Mountain Home Magazine August 2020
“A Woman’s Place is in the Lab”
Mountain Home Magazine June 2020
“High Speed in the Hinterlands”
Mountain Home Magazine December 2019
“The Town that Saved Christmas (Again)”
Mountain Home Magazine November 2019
“Out of Vietnam”
Smithsonianmag.com March 2019
“Seventy-Five Years Ago, the Military’s Only All-Black Female Band Fought the War Department and Won”
Mountain Home Magazine March 2019
“Our 1 Under 30: Wellsboro’s Jason Black Makes Forbes List”
Mountain Home Magazine November 2018
“The Pen Pals”
Mountain Home Magazine April 2018
“From Edison to IPhones
Mountain Home Magazine September 2017
“Getting Away with Murder”
Smithsonian.com August 2017
“The First Presidential Pardon Pitted Alexander Hamilton against George Washington”
Smithsonian.com May 2017
“How A Single Paragraph Paved the Way for a Jewish State”
Smithsonian.com March 2017
“This Orphanage Did More than Help Orphans of the Holocaust. It Helped Them Reclaim Their Humanity.”
Smithsonian.com December 2016
“The Foundry That Cast the Liberty Bell is Ceasing All Operations”
Mountain Home Magazine November 2016
“Lincoln Wins” (Cover Story)
Smithsonian.com October 2016
“What’s Behind America’s Obsession with Presidential Masks?”
Smithsonian.com August 2016
The Media Learned Nothing After Misreporting the Reagan Assassination
Smithsonian.com July 2016
“What the Candidates and (And Journalists) can learn from the 1948 Democratic National Convention”
Mountain Home Magazine June 2016
“The Wellsboro Bank Robbers” (Cover Story)
Smithsonian.com January 2016
“Powerball’s Puerto Rican Roots”
Smithsonian.com December 2015
“The Charlie Brown Christmas Special was the Flop that Wasn’t”
Mountain Home Magazine November 2015
“Murder of the Century” (Cover Story)
NewsWorks.org October 2015
“Not easy for a parent amid Northern Liberties development, but the kids are all right”
Smithsonian.com January 2015
“The Coast Guard’s Most Potent Weapon During Prohibition? Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman”
Smithsonian.com December 2014
“How Gone with the Wind Took the Nation By Storm By Catering to Its Southern Sensibilities”
Smithsonian.com July 2014
“The Big Mystery Behind the Great Train Robbery May Finally Have Been Solved”
The Atlantic.com June 2014
“The Batmen Before Batmen”
NewsWorks.org April 9, 2014
“Philadelphia Auction Treasure”
Smithsonian.com March 2014
“The Bloody Attempt to Kidnap A British Princess”
Deep South February 2014
“Dot’s Kitchen”
Smithsonian.com December 2013
“The Story Behind the First Ransom Note in American History”
NewsWorks.org April 16, 2013
“Jesus on Girard”
210 East Rosedale September 2012
“Azalea Benches”
SN Review 9:2 Spring 2007
“Game Night”
HONORS AND AWARDS
2020 Professional Media Keystone Awards: First Place, Business and Consumer Writing; First Place, Personality Profiles; Second Place, Personality Profiles
IRMA (International Regional Magazine Association) Feature Award 2018
Keynote Speaker, FBI Federal Training, Philadelphia, PA October 2016
Feature Writing Award, Keystone Press Association 2016
Board Member, Goucher College Alumnae/Alumni Association 2012-2015
Expert Commentator, Mysteries at the Museum (The Travel Channel) 2014
Christine White Award for Excellence in Literary Journalism 2009
MFA Program Nominee, AWP Intro. Writers’ Award Fall 2008