I'm a freelance magazine writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A proud generalist, I'm often drawn to stories about inequality, psychology, wrongdoing, and mysteries of all kinds. Previously, I was a staff reporter at Forbes. My work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atavist Magazine, Mother Jones, Marie Claire, Pacific Standard, The Washington Post, Elle, The Information, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, The Center for Investigative Reporting, The Center for Public Integrity, and elsewhere.

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Two of my stories — "A Crime Beyond Belief" and

"Frozen Assets" — won Excellence in Journalism Awards in longform storytelling from SPJ-NorCal. I've also received support and honors for my work from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, the Gumshoe Group, the Kaiser Global Health Reporting Fellowship, the San Francisco Press Club, and the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. I'm a member of The Writers Grotto in San Francisco.

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I graduated from Columbia Journalism School with a focus on magazine writing and investigative reporting. I also have an M.S. in urbanization and development from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from Harvard.

 

In a past life, I worked as a private investigator and as an international development consultant in India's informal settlements. I was born in Ukraine and moved to San Francisco on the day of the 1989 earthquake.