graduate school research:
I published my master’s thesis research in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. The article is about the young women who operated the Voder, the electrical speech synthesis machine presented by AT&T/Bell Labs at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
My new project explores efforts to collect vital statistics for the 1890 U.S. Census. I presented a working version of this research at the 2025 Midwest Junto for the History of Science and will share an updated version at SHOT 2025.
I’m working on a paper that historicizes the labor debates surrounding electronic death registration. This project grew out of a workshop on data and disease in historical perspective, hosted by the University of Edinburgh’s Epidemy Lab. I presented part of my research at ICOHTEC-SHOT in July 2024.
At the May 2023 International Conference on Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry, I presented a paper on medical scribes and their role in salvaging the utility of electronic health records. I also presented this research in October 2023 at the Leibniz AILab’s Trustworthy AI Lab.
a random sampling of journalism & public writing:
For The COVID Tracking Project, I published multiple pieces on the challenges and quirks of COVID-19 data.
At Spotlight PA, I covered COVID-19 extensively, culminating in an investigation into Pennsylvania’s system of electronic death registration. A few other pieces stand out: I wrote about a debate coroners had with state health officials, a major health system that made dishonest claims about the severity of the virus, and a major university that forced students to assume all risk of COVID-19. Prior to the pandemic, I also reported on Pennsylvania’s new system of automated guardianship oversight.
The majority of my work at the New York Times was behind the scenes, where I contributed to internal software for research and reporting. Occasionally, I worked on public-facing projects, like this story on state-level abortion restrictions. In 2018, I wrote about how and why I convinced the Styles desk to send me to Atlantic City to help cover the 👑 Miss America pageant 👑. I also co-edited Times Open, a blog about making digital products at the New York Times.
I wrote about my decision to leave journalism for Source, a blog from OpenNews. Poynter also once interviewed me about my beloved little poop bot, which I built for Vermont Public Radio.
For Increment, I wrote a poem about code.