I’m an Oklahoma City-based journalist whose work has led to policy changes at state and local levels. My reporting often calls attention to injustices, systemic failures, misuse of public funds and wasteful government spending.

Before launching the news site Big If True in 2017, I was an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper, and later on, the news nonprofit Oklahoma Watch. Before delving into investigative journalism, I covered education and other subjects for my hometown newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News in the Texas Panhandle.

Growing up and living exclusively in red states has heightened my awareness of regional stereotypes in national media, and one of my goals with Big If True is to show our readers the depth and complicated beauty of places that receive scant coverage beyond the occasional “Trump Country” feature.

Although anti-media sentiment is reaching an all-time high in the United States, I feel lucky to live in a place that values freedom of the press so much that it’s guaranteed in our First Amendment. And I second Poynter senior scholar Roy Peter Clark’s notion that reading is a democratic craft. News can be stirring. It can spark change. It can be absurd or even funny. But beyond all those things, reading the news is an important way to stay engaged with our democracy.

Journalism’s advocacy for government transparency is part of what I love about the industry. That’s why a lot of my projects that I mention on this site have made use of public records and data. I want to build a team at Big If True that bolsters stories with open records and approaches their beats from a watchdog angle.

Check out some of my previous investigative projects here and stories that wouldn’t have been possible without using open records and data here. I’ve also highlighted some of my favorite essays I’ve written for Big If True here.