I am an award winning freelance photographer/video-maker based in Providence. One editor described me as a “...specialist in intercultural communication and visual narratives that excel in their creative mastery of light, shadow and sound, stills and video.” My photo-essays have been funded by fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the MacArthur Foundation's Program of Research and Writing on International Peace and Cooperation, the Alicia Patterson Foundation and the Fulbright Foundation. My project on the pesticide poisoning of California farm-workers was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine.

From my experience as a visual storyteller, I know that I cannot create a successful well researched film if I work in a vacuum . The interdisciplinary community at the heart of the Coastal Institute’s Senior Fellows program would be essential to create a balanced, honest portrayal of the future of the quahogging industry in Rhode Island. The curiosity that drives a photo-journalist like me is similar to that of the researchers who are C.I. Senior Fellows. The list of biographies, credentials and areas-of-interest of the current C.I. Senior Fellows that I have read strike me as a kind of treasure-chest-in-the-making of potential resources, collaborators and partnerships-to-be. My decades-old, award-winning expertise in visual storytelling would be a valuable addition to the community of C.I. Senior Fellows. I would explore ways to collaborate with other Senior Fellows who want to make their work more accessible to larger audiences. I would offer to advise them on ways to create powerful contemporary visual media productions which are compelling to audiences who are passionate about coastal environments and to the larger general public.