Journalistic Work and Non-Fiction Writing
NYC Air Quality - Areas Hit the Hardest by Air Pollution Want Change
Joseph Tomaras woke up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe.
“I started coughing nonstop for about an hour, wheezing,” said Tomaras. “I wasn’t able to catch my breath.”
This was the first asthma attack Tomaras had had in months. Since June 2021, Tomaras had been commuting for work to East Harlem and feared the air quality there would lead to a resurgence of asthma. Read More
Extreme Weather Chronicle: Hurricane Sandy
When water from Hurricane Sandy started entering his basement in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, Ross Blair’s gut reaction was to put down things like towels. But soon he realized that this wouldn’t help and the safest thing to do was to turn the power off.
“Then that’s it, let it take its course,” he said. Three feet of water eventually flooded his basement. “There’s no one to contact.”
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The Day the Sun Changed Color
Over a year ago, in mid-September of 2020, I stepped out for an early evening walk down the Hudson River Greenway. The sunsets around this time of year had been consistently beautiful, with each night featuring a watercolor-like array of light dancing off the water. It was a simple pleasure that didn’t go unappreciated six months into the pandemic.
But on this September 2020 evening, the sunset looked different. Read More
Wildfire Smoke and Children’s Respiratory Health
The indoor kitchen walls of rural houses in El Salvador were often black with soot, Rebecca Ciciretti noticed while working for the Peace Corps for almost two years. Mothers and children were often inside for many hours a day, cooking over an open flame.
“If that’s what the walls look like, what do their lungs look like? Because they’re over the fire multiple times a day,” Ciciretti wondered at the time. Read More
I have journalism and photography experience covering climate change and environmental health.
My Master’s project at Columbia Journalism School was on Vibrio, a bacteria that is projected to proliferate as waters warm due to climate change.