I’m a senior writer for CNN Investigates in New York City. I have a track record of breaking stories on major national news events and have broadcast, digital and OSINT experience. In my role, I've produced long-term accountability investigations, as well as rapid response investigations around major breaking news events.
My first investigation at CNN, published in August 2021, looked at the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a severely mentally ill Guantanamo Bay detainee who the U.S. government publicly admitted torturing and who had spent more than two decades behind bars – 14 years without charge. The Biden administration released al-Qahtani in March 2022. My other investigations include: A report on how a Kentucky green startup, App Harvest, promoted for years by Vice President J.D. Vance, duped its investors and subjected its workers to miserable conditions; a look at how a little-known Florida dark money group steers GOP leaders on major policy issues and collaborative rapid response investigations on the alleged suspects of both assassination attempts on President Trump; among other stories.
Before joining CNN in 2021, I was a Livingston Award finalist for an investigation about the plight of undocumented adoptees in the United States who were adopted by American citizens abroad as children but found out as adults that they faced possible deportation under U.S. immigration law. For the piece, I gained rare access into an ICE-run detention facility in South Texas to interview Mauricio Cappelli, a 38-year-old adoptee who grew up his entire life in Wisconsin before he was deported this past March to Costa Rica, a country he had not known since he was an infant. My investigation looked at the failures at every level of the federal government that allowed this phenomenon to continue.
In December 2019, I traveled to Beirut to investigate the Lebanese army’s crackdown on that nation’s protest movement. There, he interviewed former detainees who alleged torture at the hands of the Lebanese army – a major beneficiary of U.S. security aid.
Previously, I worked as a digital producer at NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and as a frequent contributing digital reporter for NBCNews.com. In my role, I regularly produced original reporting, appearing on both TV, online and on all NBC News’ social platforms. Some of my work included a documentary feature on Hurricane Katrina survivors and their fight to repair their battered homes a decade later amidst rampant contractor fraud, in-depth reporting on the nation’s opioid crisis as part of NBC’s “One Nation Overdosed” series and a feature on the future of America's HBCUs in the Trump era, which won a 2018 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Award. I was the lead reporter spearheading all NBC News series coverage of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in North Dakota, contributing dozens of written articles, video features, exclusive investigative scoops and live on-the-ground dispatches. My reporting was honored by the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) in 2017.
Prior to NBC, I worked as a contributor for The Guardian US where I covered City Hall in New York City. My investigation into abuses within the city's foster care system revealed that the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) had for years abused its power in family courts, wrongly taken children into custody and inadequately assisted those it claimed to help. The article, in addition to a subsequent class-action lawsuit on behalf of the victims, led to Gov. Andrew Cuomo announcing four major reforms to ACS in November 2015.
My first job in journalism was as an Associate Producer for a special investigative documentary project, “Marijuana Wars” on the social, legal and moral implications of the nation’s 40-year War on Drugs, both in the US and in Latin America, and the rise of the marijuana legalization movement in the United States for “People and Power,” a long form investigative current affairs program broadcast weekly on Al Jazeera English.
I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and speak fluent Spanish. I hold a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami and Master’s degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia University.
Awards:
Livingston Awards
2019 Finalist, National Reporting
Adopted and Undocumented - The Intercept
National Association of Black Journalists
Best General Assignment TV News Story - Black Colleges and Trump
NBC Nightly News
Native American Journalists Association
Best TV News Story - Army Corps Denies Dakota Access Pipeline
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
Nominated: 2016 Webby Awards - News & Information (Social Media)