Awards (Selected)

National Society of Newspaper Columnists Annual Contest, Lifestyles, 3rd Place       2025

National Press Foundation Widening the Pipeline Fellow 2025

Livingston Award, Excellence in National Reporting, Finalist                                        2024

Gwen Ifill Fellow, Aspen Ideas Festival: Health                              2024

National Headliner Award, Special or Feature Column, 3rd Place                              2024

National Institute for Health Care Management Awards,
Investigative and General Reporting, Finalist       2024

Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism,
Inaugural Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grantee                                            2023

Society for Features Journalism Excellence-in-Features Award,
Consumer/Service Features, 1st Place          2023

Online Journalism Awards, Excellence in Audio Digital Storytelling, Finalist           2023

National Headliner Award, Special or Feature Column, 3rd Place                                2023

Excellence in Craft Award Winner,
Outdoor Writers Association of America, 2nd Place Newspaper           2023

Dateline Award for Excellence in Local Journalism,
Magazine, Non-Breaking News, Finalist              2022

Excellence in Craft Award Winner,
Outdoor Writers Association of America, 3rd Place Newspaper           2022

SciShortform Best Shortform Science Writing,
“Top Pick” Short Short (<600 words)                                  
2021

Other Honors

My story on how the immune system may cause psychiatric illness was listed in Longread’s Best of 2023: The Audience Awards and in the top 10 of Chartbeat’s Most Engaging Stories of 2023. It was also The Washington Post’s most shared, most gifted, and 4th most-read story of 2023.

Falling Walls Foundation Berlin Science Week Research 2021

ProPublica/Online News Association Diversity Mentorship Program        2021

Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship for Online News Association conference      2021 

Phillip L. Graham Diversity Fund Fellowship,
Investigative Reporters & Editors conference                               2021

Solutions Journalism Network mentorship program, Winona LaDuke 2021

AAAS Mass Media Fellowship Finalist                                                                                2020

International Neuroethics Society Student/Postdoc Essay Contest Finalist                 2018

RehabMart Scholarship Winner, one of eight selected from >1,400 submissions       2018

Graduate Student Association’s Student Group Leader of the Year                                2018

Baltimore Science Slam Winner,
“Most Creative Talk”
by audience vote for talk on research  2016