I’m a reporter helping to lead coverage of a vast and varied region that stretches from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the marshes of Cameron Parish, La. A big part of my job is covering the onslaught of news produced in this part of the country, including pivotal moments like hurricanes and other natural disasters, elections, the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, the historic vote in Mississippi to abandon the 126-year-old state flag embedded with the Confederate battle emblem, and John Lewis’s final posthumous trip to Selma, Ala.
An equally significant and gratifying responsibility is working on stories that often stray from the news and try to capture and explain the texture and character of this diverse, complicated place. I’ve profiled an 18-year-old mayor and a 100-year-old priest. I’ve ridden on a tractor-pulled party trailer through downtown Nashville. I’ve sampled a lot of flavorful, if not always healthy, foods (crawfish and king cakes, most recently).
I grew up on the Gulf Coast, in the part of Texas that considers itself the South. I graduated from Texas A&M University with a political science degree. I returned to the South in 2019 as a national correspondent in Atlanta, and then opened The Times’s bureau in Nashville in 2020. I became the bureau chief for the South, based in Atlanta, in 2022.
I’ve been with The Times since 2014, starting as an inaugural writer for the newsletter that evolved into The Morning. Then, I spent several years on the Metro staff, covering crime and the New York Police Department; faith and values; and the broader tristate region. I’ve also had extended stints reporting from The Times’s bureaus in Sydney, Australia, and Phoenix. Previously, I was a staff writer for The Los Angeles Times, and I’ve also written for The Washington Post, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., The Dallas Morning News and Pacific Standard magazine.
As a Times journalist, I am committed to upholding the standards of integrity outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. I believe it is essential to go into every story with an open mind and an abundance of curiosity. I’m eager to challenge assumptions and be surprised by what I discover. To that end, I spent lots of time crisscrossing the region I cover, mostly by car, because the best reporting comes from being on the ground and the best stories are those stumbled upon.
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A bill prompted by the death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, would force law enforcement agencies to report undocumented immigrants to federal officials.
By Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Rick Rojas
Attendees of the rowdy ’80s and ’90s-era spring festival in Atlanta are wondering whether — and how — they might show up in a new documentary about it.
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Drought conditions over the summer boiled crawfish before farmers could harvest them, creating a dire situation that the governor has declared a disaster.
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Chief Justice Tom Parker has long been revered by conservative groups as an architect for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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A tire shop parking lot has become a popular destination for those craving the beloved treat. The only problem: Which variety to choose?
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The additional 21 hours of recordings offer a fuller picture of what happened after the traffic stop, but they do not show what led to it.
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