About
I’m a journalist and social scientist whose purpose is to weave data, history, and reporting into stories that drive public policy and the public conversation, particularly regarding maternal health.
My critically-acclaimed book Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section, which blends research, reporting, history, and memoir, was named a great book of 2024 by the Times-Herald Union, a Winter 2025 Jewish Women’s Archive Book Club Pick, and a best book on work, family, and gender equity by the Better Life Lab.
My reporting on maternal and public health has appeared in AARP, Boston Globe, the Guardian, the 19th, the Times-Union, and Women’s Health, among others. I also write the Substack Blind Spots, a newsletter about forces that shape our lives—and that take place just out of public view.
As a researcher, I’ve published scholarship on questions about who makes the news and how that shapes audiences’ perceptions of the world. I’ve examined how sexual harassment shapes photojournalists’ careers, how the male-dominated nature of photojournalism misses important stories, the ways that attitudes about and policies toward photography shape the photographs that get taken and distributed, and what, as a result, doesn’t get pictured.
I enjoy mentoring emerging writers and researchers, particularly regarding writing and storytelling, and in 2025 I joined the Scholars Strategy Network as an op-ed editor.
I hold a PhD in mass communications from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, an MFA in creative writing from NYU, and a BA in history and English from Cornell University.
