About Me
Writing is the only work I know of that lets me talk to astronauts, milk goats, and meet the inventor of self-walking shoes. It’s an unbeatable excuse to go out and talk to neighbors, to watch Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on a weekday morning, and to dig deeper into the problems I care about. It’s difficult and frustrating and a perfect source of self-pity, but to say that I’m grateful for this work would be an understatement.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, I taught an extraordinary group of fifth graders in south Louisiana before earning an MFA in nonfiction from Chatham University. In addition to my work for nonprofits — reports, speeches, op-eds, and the like — I write feature stories and creative pieces that have appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine, Hippocampus, and elsewhere.
I was born and grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania — home of some of the best sunsets in the world, but probably better known as the place where this happened. For almost a decade, I’ve been living in Pittsburgh, where you can find me writing, running, or lounging in the yard with my wife, Jacqueline, and our (very) old-soul beagle, Walter.
Author photo by Joshua Franzos.