tik root

senior staff writer at grist

i'm a freelance journalist working across mediums (print, video and audio). while currently roaming the u.s., i have reported from a number of countries (yemen, spain, rwanda, brazil, belize, turkey, russia, etc. ) on everything from al-qaeda to the olympics.

my work has appeared with the washington post, national geographic, the new york times, the atlantic, the new yorker, harper’s and the bbc, among other outlets. i hold a b.a. from middlebury college and a m.a. in science, health and environment journalism from columbia university. i am proficient (though rusty) in arabic.

i'm grateful for the support that i have received, at various times, from the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, the society of environmental journalists, the overseas press club, the deadline club, saja, and groundtruth. for the latter, i was a co-winner of a regional edward r. murrow award. a project i helped produce also won the society of environmental journalist award for outstanding explanatory reporting.