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Describe your TV station.
Number one watched station in the 13th market known for quality reporting and photojournalism.

What do you do?
I make stuff up. No, really, it's my job to make the news real, human, and relevant to our viewers. That means engaging them emotionally and intellectually to the story.

How did you get your job?
I met some of the I-Team producers at the IRE Convention in Kansas City. We chatted, and somehow I got the News Director to give me a shot. He's been fired by the way.

What is your best professional lesson learned at the J-School?
All stories are told one person at a time. Basic, but true every single day, and how to apply make-up.

What is your favorite J-School memory?
Covering the Copeland Trial. Two 70-year-olds convicted of murdering hoboes on their farm. Then delivering the verdict live from Chillicothe just minutes after it came.

What would be your best advice to current students?
Always remember your story is about a person. Anything you write, show or don't show will affect them for months, possibly years. The most difficult ethical decision you make each day might be whether to leave the building. Just parking a news van in front of someone's house is enough to jeopardize their reputation.

What are you working on currently?
The top story of the day.

What do you consider to be your greatest professional achievement?
Exposing police brutality in a Las Vegas suburb while city officials accused us of "doctoring" the surveillance tape we had acquired. We were harassed, threatened and charged by doing the story. The city even tried to take away our FCC license but lost the federal hearing. It required a firm sense of knowing we were on the right story and handling it the right way.

What makes you good at your job?
I can do a lot of things pretty well. Write, ad-lib, demonstrate, explain, make a joke, bring a tear, and I don't take "no" for an answer.

Who would you like to work with and why/or where would you most like to work?
I'm here.

What are your next career steps?
Never losing my standards day after day. Never saying, "this is good enough."

What did you want to be as a kid?
I'm here.