What I Do

I have media and publishing experience as a writer, journalist, editor, and freelancer.

I’m currently a professor at Temple University, where I also serve as the executive director of  Philadelphia Neighborhoods during a time it has won multiple awards. Through my work focusing on communities underserved by both government and media in the city, I have become intimately familiar with the neighborhoods, people, organizations, and cultures which comprise the patchwork of communities making up Philadelphia.

I’ve had the opportunity to edit students from Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication who worked for news outlets around the country as producers, reporters, photographers, editors, and journalists covering the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Recently, I was a part of a team that performed an audit of The Philadelphia Inquirer looking at diversity and inclusion issues both in the newsroom and in the coverage. As a half of the qualitative team, I performed interviews with dozens of newspaper staff and assisted in the production and delivery of the findings.

Before a career in higher education, I used to run one magazine and was the managing editor of another.

As someone entrenched in the music scene, I was chosen as a curator in Philadelphia for the Red Bull Sound Select program.

I was a founding member of the art curation project Tiny Room For Elephants. TRFE facilitates and curates creative arts to cultivate relationships between established artists, independent artists and their audiences. This is done through various events and pop-up events.

Naturally inquisitive and curious, I’m fascinated by people, lives and worlds other than my own. These traits have allowed me to cover a wide range of subject matter, such as a controversial interview with one of the most popular music artists in the world, a story on lucha libre and finding out what the deal is with those clothing donation boxes you see on the side of the road.

I am also a graduate of Temple University with magna cum laude distinction, receiving my degree in journalism. I am well versed in –and understand the importance of– interviewing, AP style, research, attention to detail, deadlines, editing, fact-checking and other skill-sets.

I also received a Master of Science in Communication for Development and Social Change which helped me sharpen my skills in using communication tools and practices to affect societal change
on a local level. I specifically focused on ways to effectively convene stakeholders at a neighborhood level in order to facilitate the kinds of dialogue that lead to sustained engagement around public issues.

My history and experience translates to the initiative, responsibility, commitment, and perseverance I am capable of. As someone who started and ran his own nationally distributed print publication, this also speaks to my creativity and ability to think outside of any box. Not on a sheet of a paper or a computer-screen, in words or a resume, but in action.

If any of this interests you, you’re looking for work for hire or consulting and would like to talk further, feel free to contact me.