My reporting has appeared in The Washington Post, CNN, the BBC, NPR, The Independent, Chicago Tribune, ZiNG Magazine (Liat Airline's inflight publication), Fodor's, Edible Brooklyn, Extra Crispy, DAME Magazine, and RACKED, among others, with work forthcoming in many publications, including National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and Munchies (VICE). 

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Many of my stories focus on travel. I also enjoy writing about climate change, health and science, teen and youth issues, gender rights/equality, and food security. Lately, the topics that are most interesting to me are entomophagy (the eating of insects), tropical diseases, and poverty. 

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UPCOMING REPORTING TRIPS: All trips have been postponed due to COVID-19.

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Health, Science, & the Environment

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• Atlas Obscura: Why the Venus de Milo has Extra-long Second Toes

• National Geographic: (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) Does eating invasive species actually help drive down populations?

• The Revelator (Center for Biological Diversity) (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE): Toxic Masculinity is the Match that Starts Forest Fires

• The Revelator (Center for Biological Diversity) (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE): Why a Seabird on the Least Threatened List Should Concern Us All

• Smithsonian Magazine: FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) Leishmaniasis, Chagas, Climate Change, and Poverty

• The Washington Post:

  • (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) Divided about whether to prolong life or ease pain during hospice care in nursing homes

  • Why you need to know about mice, ticks, warm temperatures, and Lyme disease (also in print)

  • I did everything the doctors said, but for 20 years my symptoms only got worse (also in print)​

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​​Travel, Food, & Drink

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FRANCE

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• BBC Travel: Letters from the Trenches: a Wartime Solution to Isolation (photos and words)

• BBC Travel: France's Fascinating Wine Treatment (photos and words)

• BBC Travel: The Ghost Villages from World War I in Northern France (photos and words)

• Fodor's: 10 French Châteaux Where You Can Sleep Like Royalty

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GUADELOUPE

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• ZiNG Magazine (Liat's inflight magazine): (feature -January, 2019 - Pg. 60-65) Pilgrimage to the Past (photos & words) (in print) 

• CNN Travel: Guadeloupe: These tiny islands are the French Caribbean's greatest secret (photos & words)

• NPR (The Salt): ​​​Boudin: A Story of Sausage, Slavery And Rebellion In The Caribbean (photos & words) 

• BBC Travel: An Island Where Rocks Have Faces (photos and words)

• Hidden Compass: The Nautical Alchemist (photos & words)

• Fodor's: 10 French Créole Culinary Traditions to Try in Guadeloupe

• Extra Crispy:​​ The "Sorrow of Love" Is the Sweetest of Tarts (photos, recipe, & words)

• Munchies (VICE): (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) How to drink rum like a local in Guadeloupe

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OTHER DESTINATIONS / CREATIVE NONFICTION

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• Fodor's: These 25 Picture Perfect Towns Are Literally Works of Art

• Fodor's: Explore Ten of Scotland's Most Interesting Sites

• Fodor's: Here Are Ten of the Best Carnival Celebrations Around the World

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TRAVEL SOLO AFTER 40

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In 2017, I founded Travel Solo After 40 as an online resource  for women travelers flying solo well into middle age. I've also added a few creative nonfiction travel essays that border on over-sharing (love! angst!). All words and photos on the site are my own. Here are a few of my favorites:

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• Puerto Rico: The Chiringas Over El Morro

• France: Trump's Nationalism Kept Him From Honoring Fallen WWI American Soldiers in France

• Portugal: Seizing the Day in the Algarve

• Peru: 20 Year of Solitude

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FOODS OF THE FUTURE 

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• Chowhound: Hot Dogs, Pizza, and Grasshoppers? The Rising Demand for Edible Insects in Chicago

• Edible Brooklyn: Filleting Waterbugs and Eating Crickets at the First-Ever Brooklyn Bugs Festival

• Extra Crispy:​ How and Why to Eat Bugs for Breakfast

• NPR (The Salt):  At Bug-Eating Festival, Kids Crunch Down On The Food Of The Future (photos & words) 

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UNITED STATES

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• Chowhound: The Final Frontier: Where Chicago Serves the Whole Animal for Supper

• Chowhound: Chicago’s Punch Bowl Trend Is So Much More Than a Pitcher of Kool-Aid

• Edible Brooklyn:

  • 6 Bars Making Winter Cocktails You Can Sip All Season Long

  • 4 Restaurants Serving Cozy French Fare in Bed-Stuy and Bushwick

  • The Woman Behind Fort Greene’s LaRina Pastificio & Vino Broke Out of the Home Kitchen

  • Staying in Town for the Holidays? Here’s How to Stock Up for That Staycation

  • How Bed-Stuy’s Haitian-American Cafe Erzulie Tries to Combat Gentrification (photos & words - one of Edible Brooklyn's Top Five Stories for 2017)

• Edible Queens: (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) Grabbing a table in the smallest Indonesian restaurant in Queens (photos & words; Sept. 2018 issue)

• Edible Manhattan: Get a Glimpse of Old New York City by Heading to a Supper Club​​

• Tales of the Cocktail: (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) "Black Death" cocktails in America

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TRAVEL ADVICE

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• ESME: A single mom learns some hard lessons about travel emergencies

• Skylum: Europe's Most Beautiful Places According to Photographers​​​

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Politics & Opinions

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• Women's Media Center: U.S. Women’s Soccer Team comes closer to victory — in the world cup and over the gender gap​

• Women's Media Center: House of Representatives passes a bill that includes renewal of the Hyde Amendment

• Atlas Obscura: The Politics of Sunbathing on Human Remains

• ESME: (FORTHCOMING ARTICLE) Patriarchy and politicians, not single mothers, are killing our children

• DAME Magazine: Can you fight fascism with fashion?​

• Medium: 

  • The Consummate Trickster: How Hugh Hefner Supported Rape Crisis Centers While Commodifying Rape Culture

  • It’s Time for a Centralized National Gun Registry

• MEL Magazine: How the hipster barbers of Brooklyn feel about giving the "Nazi Haircut"​

• RACKED: East Africa Doesn't Want Your Hand-Me-Downs

• STIR Journal: Teen choice and the dangers of parental involvement laws

• World Pulse:  Teen girls in Cameroon are changing the conversation about rape

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Single Parenting & Relationships

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• ESME:​

  • Raising a daughter in a house where radical relationships are the norm

  • Battling depression one week a month

  • Becoming a Spinster and Old Maid at 41​

• The Washington Post: I'm not afraid of commitment - I just love my independence

          

Lifestyle & Fashion

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• RACKED:

  • Wealthy New Englanders sure love those pink pants: The history of Nantucket Reds

  • Wear Your Coffee (Without Spilling It All Over Yourself)

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Advice Project Media   
 

In addition to my freelance work, I also write many articles and blog posts for Advice Project Media (the "Advice Project"), a not-for-profit organization I founded in 2013. Below is a selection of my work for the Advice Project:

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The Huffington Post (Advice Project Media's blog):

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• The effects of climate change on coral reefs and women at the Jacques Cousteau Underwater Reserve

• The importance of educating Afghan girls in Afghanistan and New York

• ‘You Will Survive’: Reflections on Surviving the Killing Fields in Cambodia (this is a letter from Melissa's anthology, Advice to My Thirteen-Year-Old Self; Melissa wrote the introduction)

• Taking Charge of the Media - Amplifying the Stories of Afghan-American girls

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From Melissa's anthology, ADVICE TO MY THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SELF (Melissa curated and edited each piece and wrote the introductions):

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• Instruments of change, not of war (Pamela Angwech; introduced by Melissa)

• Pushing boundaries all the way to the South Pole (Felicity Aston; introduced by Melissa)

• What is now proved was once imagined (Donna Masini; introduced by Melissa)

• Gender doesn't define you (Chi Yvonne Leina; introduced by Melissa)

• From geek to superhero (Noura Al Noman; introduced by Melissa)

• Learning from our elephant brothers and sisters (Sangduen "Lek" Chailert; introduced by Melissa)

• You will live through this (Dese'Rae L. Stage; introduced by Melissa)

• You will preach in cathedrals (Angela Berners-Wilson; introduced by Melissa)

• You have not attracted the wrath of demons by menstruating (Urmila Chanam; introduced by Melissa)

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Published in Advice Project Media's online publication, THE HUB:

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• Supporting women's soccer in Cameroon supports entire communities

• La Mulâtresse Solitude - Who gets to tell a story?

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