I worked full time for 26 years as a newspaper reporter/photographer and editor of all stripes, culminating at the Los Angeles Times. At roughly the same time I independently produced six award-winning documentaries, most of them broadcast by PBS affiliates.

In newspaper work I came to specialize in copy editing, working all desks from features to op-ed to foreign. Copy editors are the last line of defense for a publication, catching errors from misplaced commas to major factual goofs and libel. For “dessert,” they write the headlines and photo captions. “Prof Pens Bio Blurb.”

My documentary subjects have included facial birth defects, a children's theater school and the bulldozing of historic sites. I've leavened the heavy stuff with a years-long string of “Teeny-Tiny Films,” which might be called comic microdocumentaries.

I'm also faculty advisor to The Breeze, JMU's student newspaper.

Teaching Interests: All things journalistic, as well as video documentary/experimentation

Creative Work: Documentaries and journalism