Affiliations: AIR, SPJ, SEJ, IRE

Joined PRX: October 16, 2003

My five-part documentary "As the Sound Churns" won Public Radio News Directors Incorporated's 2007 national award for best news series. It also won 2nd place from the Society of Environmental Journalists for best in-depth radio reporting and regional first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio and Television News Directors Association.

Good thing I was a clumsy traveler.

Otherwise my cheap microcassette recorder wouldn't have fallen out of my pocket in an Indonesian taxi. A generous BBC stringer wouldn't have lent me his professional recording gear, and I wouldn't have gotten the radio bug. But after pointing a mic at rare jungle songbirds and gong-playing grandmothers for my first radio story, there was no turning back. Since then, seven years ago, I've reported for Day to Day, Living on Earth, Marketplace and The World. I've also continued my print career as an environmental journalist and author by reporting for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times.

I'm now a reporter at KTOO-FM in Juneau, the Alaskan capital city accessible only by boat or plane and North America's biggest potential urban-avalanche disaster. What fun!