I’m a freelance writer with 25+ years of experience creating content for consumer magazines, higher education, and government agencies. My work has been published by national brands and publications, including NASA Global Climate Change, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, EARTH magazine, National Parks, and AAA Midwest Traveler.
I’ve also served as editor of several publications, including a NASA earth science publication, the alumni magazine of Colorado School of Mines, and publications focused on water resources and natural hazards.
I earned a master’s degree in journalism and media communication from Colorado State University, and I am a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
I excel at telling the unique stories of a subject, whether it’s merging the adventure part of a scientist’s fieldwork with the research results or telling the historic backstory of a travel destination. I deliver polished and accurate text, I consistently meet deadlines, and I strive to make sure that my clients are happy with the final product.
Five Things to Help You Get to Know Me:
1. I’ve written feature stories related to just about every aspect of earth and environmental sciences: climate, geology, natural hazards, oceanography, water resources, and remote sensing. A number of my published articles have been illustrated with my photography.
2. Growing up in south Florida, I had the enviable experience of watching several Apollo launches. Not on TV—but from a beach several miles from the launchpad. Fast forward to 2005, and my childhood fascination with space turned into a career dream project: creating the educational section of the Phoenix Mars Lander web site, which helped readers understand Mars polar regions and the goals of the lander mission.
3. I’m a landscape photographer and love the outdoors and hiking. I wrote and published a full-color guidebook titled Utah Canyon Country: 20 Must-See Sites and Short Hikes, which was illustrated with my photos and won the gold medal in its category in the 2019 Independent Publisher Awards.
4. I’m an avid solo traveler and once did a month-long solo trip to New Zealand and the Cook Islands, an experience that included being chased by a fur seal and getting stranded in the middle of a South Pacific lagoon. It was also a life-changing experience—I highly recommend solo travel!
5. I enjoy interviewing sources, and I’ve been known to go to great lengths to get the details right. I’ve asked scientists to draw pictures for me on the back of napkins at meetings, and I’m skilled at getting them to tell me the “backstory” about their research to make the article engaging and draw the reader in.
Laurie was one of the best and most professional of the journalists I’ve worked with. Her finished article was excellent and accurately captured the science as well or better than any other article that I’ve been interviewed for.