My writing and reporting has appeared in national, regional and local publications including USA Today and Kaiser Health News, Outdoor Life, Montana Free Press, INSIDER and Business Insider, Men’s Health, the Cut, the Trace, Bustle, the Missoulian, Psychology Today, the Columbia Missourian, and others.
The high demand for treatment for children with behavioral and substance abuse problems has led Montana health officials to spend Medicaid funds to send kids, including those who are foster children and wards of the state, to residential programs in other states with less stringent oversight. USA today story here (paywall for subscribers).
A handful of states, including Utah, Montana and California, have passed new laws aiming to better regulate private, for-profit residential treatment programs, boot camps, and wilderness programs, but advocates and some families say enforcement has been lax. Now, a push for federal oversight is brewing. USA today story here (paywall for subscribers).
Series: Troubled kids, troubled system
I worked with a team on a year-long investigation that exposed a lack of oversight at private residential programs for troubled teens in Montana. For years, these programs operated with minimal oversight under a state board that had issued no significant sanctions to programs despite 58 complaints and the death of a teenager.
Following the publication of the series, the Montana Legislature passed a bill disbanding a mostly self-regulating board and moved oversight of programs to the state health department, resulting in increased standards of care and the removal 27 children from a program. The Legislature also passed a bill criminalizing sexual relationships between students and staff.
The series gained national traction and received a number of awards. It was nominated for a Pulitzer, named a finalist for Scripps Howard Awards, and given an honorable mention in the national Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
Read my stories without paywall below. Visit Missoulian.com to view the full series.
Series: Education and the path to prosperity
Montana’s landscape poses challenges for economic mobility among the state’s high school and college students. With the support of a fellowship from the Education Writer’s Association, myself and another reporter examined the role education plays in upward mobility for Montana’s students, the challenges high school students face that inhibit them from succeeding in college or even enrolling in the first place, and the support systems needed to help students in poverty enroll in college and graduate.
I continued reporting on how dual enrollment courses are creating a growing achievement gap between high school students attending rural and reservation schools and those in urban areas.
Staff question safety practices in senior care facility with Montana’s largest coronavirus outbreak
As COVID-19 cases surged in Montana, I used a federal database to uncover the largest known COVID-19 outbreak among nursing homes in Montana, which went largely unknown because the state has yet to release facility-level data for senior care facilities. I also spoke to staff at the facility who said the nursing home could have done more to protect its residents from the novel coronavirus.
Child care in Missoula: 'They should call me as soon as they know they’re pregnant'
Options for child care in Missoula, Montana are so scarce that providers are advising expecting mothers to request a spot for their children as soon as they find out they're pregnant. At the same time, state homeowner insurance laws are contributing to the problem.
More work
Laine Publishing
Sisters United
In Montana, a fiber company is weaving a legacy of reclaiming Indigenous heritage and confronting the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People (MMIW). The Farmers Daughter Fibers on a mission to empower Indigenous communities through their nonprofit, Sisters United by providing critical support for MMIW searches, scholarships, and essential resources.
University of Montana
Resiliency Through Restoration
Researchers study community attitudes, river restoration along Montana’s Clark Fork
From Ear Aid to Artificial Skin
UM researcher makes breakthroughs using product-oriented research
The Trace
The first ‘stand your ground’ shooting in Missouri was over a stolen cell phone
A cell phone deal gone wrong ended with one man shot, one man awaiting trial, and the first attempt to use the "stand your ground" defense in Missouri.