Hi! My name is Kara and I’m a health journalist.
Highlights from my health coverage at WebMD:
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Using Ozempic for 'Minor' Weight Loss: Fair or Foul?
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Depression or Long COVID? Understanding the Overlapping Symptoms
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Psychedelic Therapy Sees Challenges Despite Promising Results
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Automated External Defibrillators Save Lives, If You Use Them
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‘Seeing’ Obesity: How Doctors and Patients Can Do Better
My investigative pieces for Voice of San Diego:
College Students Are Learning Hard Lessons About Anti-Cheating Software
SDSU is just one of many schools that have inked contracts with anti-cheating software companies as they moved the classroom online. Students say they’ve been flagged as cheaters for routine behavior, and worry about being filmed in the privacy of their own homes.
Officers Who Wrote Multiple Seditious Language Tickets Have Been Accused of Other Violations
Half of the San Diego Police Department officers who wrote more than one ticket for seditious language have also been accused during their careers of violating people’s rights, a Voice of San Diego review has found. A third of those officers have also been involved in fatal or nonfatal shootings.
ShotSpotter Sensors Send SDPD Officers to False Alarms More Often Than Advertised
ShotSpotter gunshot sensors were pitched as an effective tool for San Diego police, but a Voice of San Diego review suggests that the technology is not living up to the company’s own selling points.
Long-form audio work:
The Happy Land fire was one of the deadliest mass murders in U.S. history. So why isn’t it better remembered? This is a story of community, loss, memory, and resilience.
Education:
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York
2019 – 2020
Full-time M.S. student with a focus on education, religion, identity, and criminal justice reporting. Some highlights:
Published stories on Manhattan’s Midtown Community Court and the NYPD’s refusal to provide comprehensive data on fair evasion arrests.
Reported and produced audio stories about the failures of certain charter schools in Brooklyn.
Using city and state data to cover the effects of New York City’s Equity and Excellence for All initiatives.
Developing a narrative master’s project about a Jewish congregation in Brooklyn dealing with Israel/Palestine and spirituality.
Producing a investigative podcast about the 1990 Happy Land Fire in the Bronx
Barnard College, New York
2013 – 2017
Bachelor of Arts in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a semester abroad at King’s College London. Highlights include:
Wrote an undergraduate research thesis about how U.S. military drone technology uses race/gender to interpret their targets.
Found a community of whistleblowers from the drone program on Twitter, and conducted interviews with several of them for the project.
Read and analyzed military documents and transcripts of drone strikes.