Welcome to my website. I'm an author/writer based in Chicago, having enjoyed a 12-year career at USA TODAY as a sports, news and enterprise reporter. My latest work is an uplifting memoir I co-authored with Dick Vitale, "Until My Last Breath: Fighting Cancer With My Young Heroes." My human interest coverage in my journalism career focused on outside-the-box issues designed to reach readers' hearts and elicit empathy — on LGBT athletes and coaches, mental health struggles in the athletic world, the spirit of Special Olympians and the meaning of sports in U.S. prisons.
I extensively covered college and pro basketball over a decade-plus (reporting on NCAA tournaments, Final Fours, NBA drafts and All-Star games) and contributed to front-page coverage of the Olympics, including the London (2012), Rio (2016), Pyeongchang (2018) and Tokyo (2021) Games. I've been showcased as an analyst on ESPN, NPR, FOX, CBS, NBC, Sports Illustrated, Washington Post and CNN.
In my encore to journalism, I've authored a debut young adult science fiction novel, The Walls of Color, set to hit bookshelves around 2025-26, and begun writing its sequel, Spectrum. I'm currently a licensed mental health therapist in the Chicago suburbs and freelance for Counseling Today.
When I'm not near a keyboard, I'm likely training for a marathon (No. 21 was in Louisville). My personal passions include volunteer endeavors with Chicago Public Schools (coaching 5th-8th grade school basketball) and Walk With Sally (a Mentor program that gave me my little bro, Micah).