About
People need to be heard , especially strangers. I listen to tell their stories and to give them a voice. Stories help us find common ground, and break down invisible walls that keep us from understanding each other.
Yazoo City, Mississippi is where I grew up. Today I live on a little farm outside of Fairhope, Alabama. The Mississippi Delta and Mobile, the Birthplace of Mardi Gras, are my favorite places for pictures and stories, but I do this everywhere I go for my blog, Our Southern Souls (now also a book).
I also write stories for Lagniappe newspaper and report for Alabama Public Radio. My series about domestic violence, “From Hell to Hope” won first place in feature writing in 2019 from the Alabama Press Association. The next year, my series about sex trafficking, “Sexual Slavery in South Alabama,” won the 2020 William H. Johnson Print Journalism Award given by the Medical Association for the State of Alabama and the second place in feature writing for the Green Eyeshade Awards recognizing excellence in journalism in the southeast.
I’m part of the APR team that won a national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for a documentary on the long-term impact of the BP oil spill. In 2023, I won the Nappie for “Favorite Local Content Creator” and was recognized as the “Volunteer of the Year” by the United Way of Southwest Alabama.
People and their stories give inspiration and hope in a crazy world. My mission is to help them tell those stories.