Poet heart, journalist brain. Writing helps me sort the two. Born in Argentina, grew up in New Jersey, New Yorker since 1995. I am a cat and a dog person. I still don’t know how to whistle.
My best friend used to say I needed a sherpa to navigate the different parts of my personality — part witchy poet, part skeptical journalist. I rely on emotion to get to the truth in my writing and use data to set digital media strategy. My mantra in media is “data, not drama,” and “drama, not data” when I write.
I graduated from Columbia University's School of General Studies and School of Journalism and have won several awards for my work, most importantly for a personally meaningful series I wrote about “street prostitution” in New York City. I also studied at One Spirit Seminary, One Spirit Seminary, immersing myself in the practice and faith of world religions and diverse faith systems.
I was born in Argentina, was raised in New Jersey and have lived in New York City since 1995. I have been fortunate to travel across five continents and more than 50 cities in my life, both for work and leisure, and seek to reflect that perspective in my writing.
I write regularly about the intersections of culture, society, journalism, and life. Themes often include hope, resilience, self worth, whimsy and love. And emotion. Always emotion. My bilingual poetry chapbook Knowing / Saber — about grief, beauty, nature and New York City — debuted at #1 for Hispanic American Poetry in 2024.
I head the Engagement Journalism program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and work with publishers and thought leaders on media strategy. I was TED’s first head of audience development, where I drove digital media strategy and initiatives on various platforms across the company’s global footprint. I managed an award-winning social media content and programming team, launched and developed the org’s first multimillion dollar digital membership program, and built and grew the organization’s marketing and analytics teams. We launched TEDTok on TikTok, winning a 2023 People’s Choice Webby and 2023 Shorty Award for Best Use of TikTok. During the same year, TED was named the No. 1 most engaged with brand on LinkedIn by the platform and given Gold + Audience Honors Shorty awards for Best Use of LinkedIn. In 2021, my team also won a Webby for our Body Tour series on Instagram.
I was also the first global Audience & Analytics Editor (and Latina!) to be named to the masthead of the Wall Street Journal, where I worked to transform the newsroom to be digital and data-informed. My work helping to lead global digital newsroom transformation doubled the publication’s traffic. I created and lead the newsroom audience engagement, development, analytics, and emerging media teams, and was a regular on-stage interviewer and moderator at the global publication's conferences. One of the most exciting accomplishments during that time was launching state-of-the-art news delivery and storytelling on new platforms, such as Snapchat, Messenger, Alexa and more, introducing the publication’s work to new and younger audiences.
I am also a sought-after speaker and featured panelist and have moderated and conducted many on-stage panels and interviews. I have interviewed on in-person and virtual stages for the Journal and TED and have been featured on Fox local affiliates, C-Span, NBC, WNYC, plus more.
My roots are in community news. I led national digital and social strategy at DNAinfo.com in New York and Chicago, two of the best award-winning hyperlocal news sites in the history of hyperlocal news sites. I worked as an award-winning metro reporter in the 2000s and helped launch the first newspaper dedicated to New York City politics (now called City and State). Before that, I founded a successful hyperlocal blog called The Streets Where We Live and created a now-closed neighborhood Facebook group of nearly 10,000 people.
I split my time between the Catskills and Inwood, in Upper Manhattan with my husband, our dog Gertrude, and cat Earnestine. You know the Cloisters? We are just north of that.