About Me
I was first published at the age of 10, with a poem about my childhood cat. After writing a guest column for my local small-town newspaper the Sky-Hi Daily News in Grand County, Colorado in high school, I branched into creative writing with an essay titled "The Lost Art of Driving With the Windows Down" in a print edition of The Mountain Gazette. Although I originally went to the University of Kansas for English, within my first year I transferred schools and changed majors — landing back in Colorado at CU Boulder with an Environmental Studies degree and a new pair of Birkenstocks too.
By my third year, I became entranced with regenerative gardening and farming. Before I graduated, I started learning the skills of cultivation, which led to the formation of a small landscaping consulting business. In my early 20s, I went to New Zealand to work on an organic farm and fruit orchard and was introduced to the joy of solo traveling. Upon my return to Colorado, my consulting business collided with the legalization of recreational marijuana, and for the next few years, I worked with dispensaries and home growers to create more sustainable cultivation systems.
Despite the mounting interest in marijuana, by 2016 I was burnt out. I missed writing and I felt like I’d wandered off my path. On a whim, I applied for an unpaid internship at the Denver-based digital publication 303 Magazine and was accepted. Given the freedom to choose what I wanted to write about, I chose art, culture, politics, and sustainability. Over the next few years, I single-handedly revitalized the arts reporting for the magazine, and some might say, for Denver in general. Through honest and insightful reporting, I’ve given a voice to hundreds of emerging artists from a diverse array of backgrounds, shined a spotlight on creative trendsetters, and acknowledged the role that culture plays in our society. I chronicled the exponential rise and disgraceful fall of the CRUSH Walls street art festival, the unexpected phenomenon of Meow Wolf, the installation of a Monet exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, and the crushing blow of the pandemic for gig workers.
Although I’ve made a name for myself with arts reporting, I’ve also spent countless hours working on lengthy pieces about Denver’s recycling rate, police accountability, voting guides, civic engagement, renewable energy, and urban farming scene. From 2018 to 2020, I served as an editor for 303 Magazine, helping other emerging reporters learn the ropes and improve their prose. To date, I've published more than 500 articles between 303 Magazine, 5280 Magazine, Denver Westword, and DARIA.
In the fall of 2022, I started down yet another career path when I began a graduate program in Urban and Regional Planning at CU Denver.