Longform Journalism Projects
The Poverty Puzzle
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
Writers Joan McClane and Joy Lukachick Smith took nearly two years of study, research and intimate interviews to put a spotlight on one of the most important issues facing the city of Chattanooga: A complete lack of economic mobility for its poorest citizens. This seven-part series examines the income inequality hiding behind the city’s rise as the shining star of the South — rendering a full picture of poverty through reporting, combined data and very personal human stories. I was blessed to work with an amazing team of writers, photographers, multimedia reporters and developers on this series. Besides the site’s design, I also spent months combing through data to design nearly 50 information graphics throughout the site. The project was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2017, coming in second place for Public Service behind an international consortium of investigative journalists from McClatchy and Miami Herald for their deep dive into the Panama Papers, a series of stories using a collaboration of 300 reporters on six continents to expose the hidden infrastructure of offshore tax havens.
Speak No Evil
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST
Joan McClane was joined by Todd South to create a three-part series examining the terrifying reality of a no-snitch culture. It's a comprehensive look inside one woman's tragic and exhausting quest to find her son's murderer in a place where sharing information means having the business end of an AK-47 rammed down your throat. But this is solutions journalism. Through exhaustive research, in-depth reporting and epic data compilation, McClane and South offer fresh ideas to approach the issue of crime, and how Chattanooga may be able to change the game. The series was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for Local Reporting. I handled print, data visualization and site design for the project. Apologies, developer friends, this desktop-only site was designed in 2013 and is sadly not responsive.
The Lost Way
Special Projects Editor Joan McClane and investigative reporter Joy Lukachick Smith took a deep dive into the city of Chattanooga’s famous, iconic renaissance from scary industrial town that Walter Cronkite once called “America’s dirtiest city” to a booming Southern town that Outside magazine recently named “Best Town Ever.” It was one of the most celebrated cases of urban revitalization in American history. For more than a year, these journalists surveyed dozens of academic case studies, read six books and studied literally thousands of documents such as studies, letters, pamphlets, financial statements, newspaper archives, government filings, personal letters and interviewed more than 50 people to put together the most comprehensive history piece of Chattanooga’s renaissance ever written. I designed the site, helped compile research, handled data visualization, dug through more boxes of archived photographs than I could count and processed piles and piles of newspaper clippings.
The Cruelest Equation
society for news design award of excellence
There’s a super-rare disease that you've probably never heard of called IPEX. It kills children. Mercilessly. Writer Kate Harrison Belz takes you into the life one one woman who lost one of her three boys to this nightmarish sickness, and now another has contracted the disease. But the only thing that could save him — a full bone marrow transplant — could kill him before the disease does. Does she take the risk of losing another child? I handled the print and site design. Go dig in.