Hello.
I’m a journalist based in Texas
2022 — Present
Audience Engagement Producer at The Houston Chronicle
I designed, launched and write The 713, a daily, briefing-style newsletter that became the Chronicle’s flagship morning newsletter in April 2023. I have also led the design and launch of two educational, course-style pop-up newsletters, a bimonthly history newsletter and a weekly education newsletter. My other daily responsibilities include editing and overseeing strategy for numerous other daily and weekly newsletters.
mission statement here.
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The 713 is the Chronicle’s flagship morning newsletter. In an effort to build habit and loyalty, it is written as in briefing-style meant to be easily enjoyed in the inbox, while also providing ample links for readers to read more. The design of the newsletter has evolved multiple times over the past two years. See examples below.
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This five-day course-style newsletter launched in Fall of 2022 to help readers better understand the statewide positions on the November ballot, their duties, responsibilities and how the decisions those politicians make can affect Texans.
My responsibilities: I pitched the initial idea, designed the template and format of the newsletter, set the topics and edited each edition.
Metrics: Over 3,000 subscribers with an average open rate of 63% and Click Thru Rate of 5%. The newsletter ran from Oct. 3 to Nov. 8, 2022.
Examples:
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This four-day course in Spring 2023 coincided with the Texas Legislature’s 180? day regular legislative session. The purpose was to give readers a basic understanding of how laws are made in Texas — both in terms of the rules that govern the legislative proceedings and an understanding of the behind the scenes relationships that can influence them.
My responsibilities: I pitched the initial idea, designed the template and format, edited each day and added semi-regular updates as needed throughout the legislative session.
Metrics:
Examples:
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Bayou City History
HISD newsletter
2021
Local Government Reporter at The Victoria Advocate
I wrote about Govs.
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people got upset.
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Idea, metrics, examples.
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idea, metrics, examples.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Fall 2020
Engagement Fellow at The Texas Tribune
While with The Texas Tribune’s audience team, I focused on contextualizing and repackaging stories for multiple social media platforms, kept track of breaking stories in order to provide our audience with the most relevant and up-to-date information, and looked for new ways to share important information. In the daily newsletters I contributed to, the explainers I wrote, or the Instagram stories I composed, I looked for ways to put the day’s news in context and make it more accessible and understandable.
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At the height of the pandemic, there were many concerns about whether there would be enough poll workers for the 2020 election. I wanted to make sure we weren’t just covering the concerns but also informing interested readers about how they could help by becoming a poll worker.
Texas needs more poll workers this year because of the pandemic. Here's how to become one.
At the end of my fellowship, the Texas Legislature was about to begin. One of my favorite things to do as a journalist is attempting to simplify and explain the many complicated aspects of local and state government for readers who don’t spend their lives immersed in the topics. So for my last project, I tackled the state’s budget.
Balancing Texas' budget is always complicated. The pandemic and recession will make it even harder in 2021.
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Idea, metrics, examples.
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idea, metrics, examples.
Other Interests
Here are other things I”m interested in or have done.
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lil projects
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MrBellers and Reporting Texas
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idea, metrics, examples.