I am an author, journalist, and professor. My novel, Poison Girls, explores the intersection of drugs, wealth, politics and race when dozens of daughters from politically connected families die mysteriously from a strand of street heroin. My nonfiction book, Unveiled:The Hidden Lives of Nuns, explored the culture of the convent and why young, smart women choose to give up sex, money and men. I've been a staff reporter and editor at a number of newspapers and magazines, including the Chicago Sun-Times. My reporting has won several investigative reporting awards, including the Harvard Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. I earned my MFA in fiction writing at Northwestern University. I have taught writing and journalism in a number of universities, most recently at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communication. From the 2016- 2017, I was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Kyiv, Ukraine teaching investigative reporting. In the fall of 2019, I returned to Ukraine as a Fulbright Specialist. For the past three years, I have judged international reporting in the Robert F. Kennedy Book and Journalism Awards. In 2022, I was a Fulbright Scholar in post-Soviet Central Asia.