info: awards + education

AWARDS + HONORS:

LUCIE FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS, 2009 and 2010

Recipient of honorable mentions in the photo essay category for a series of images about Cuba's economic reality (2010) and in the deeper perspective and political categories for a juxtaposition of two images of U.S. President Barack Obama taken at his Grant Park, Chicago election night 2008 rally and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich during his final day in office (2009).

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, 2010

Young Explorers Grant awarded by the Expeditions Council to photograph economic and social life along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline route in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY ANNUAL, 2010

Selected image of New York Times front page photograph of Rod Blagojevich's Final Day as Illinois Governor included in best of annual photography anthology book.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY EDMUND WALSH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE, 2009-2011

Awarded a merit-based scholarship to complete a master's degree in security studies in preparation for future work covering conflict.

RORY PECK TRUST TRAINING FUND, 2008

Recipient of a BBC Training Bursary to participate in 5-day Centurion Risk Assessment hazardous environment and first aid training (HEFAT) course.

FOUNDRY PHOTOJOURNALISM WORKSHOP, 2008

Recipient of a partial tuition scholarship to participate in the inaugural Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico City as a student under photographers Andrea Bruce, Benjamin Lowy, Shaul Schwarz and Stephanie Sinclair and assistant to Stephanie Sinclair.

AMERICAN COUNCIL ON GERMANY, 2007

Recipient of a John J. McCloy Fellowship in Journalism to spend one month in Germany and Poland researching and reporting an article published by e-politik.de on Poland's public enemy number one, German MP Erika Steinbach, and her effort to build a Center Against Expulsions in Berlin to memorialize Germans who were evicted from modern Polish territory and across Central and Eastern Europe following the Second World War.

COLUMBIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, 2007

Recipient of the photojournalism award for work completed as a graduate student.

THE KOSCIUSZKO FOUNDATION AND THE POLISH MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, 2004-2005

Recipient of a year abroad scholarship for undergraduate study of Polish language and culture at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

EDUCATION:

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY, EDMUND WALSH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE (Washington, DC)

Master of Arts in Security Studies: Terrorism and Sub-State Violence, expected in 2011

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM (New York, NY)

Master of Science in Journalism, 2007

SARAH LAWRENCE COLLEGE (Bronxville, NY)

Bachelor of Arts in History + Modern Languages, 2006

JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR POLISH AND DIASPORA STUDIES (Krakow, Poland)

Polish Language + History (2004-2005)

LANGUAGES: Fluent English, Spanish, Portuguese + Polish.