I’ve spent more than two decades reporting and leading news teams on the frontlines of global and domestic upheaval, studying democracy, trauma, and repair from Cuba to Cambodia, Hong Kong to D.C. I worked for the Voice of America, Al Jazeera English, and The Washington Post, where the story became personal.

On January 6, 2021, while covering the attack on the U.S. Capitol, members of the mob swarmed and threatened me because I was a journalist — the “enemy of the people.” My Washington Post colleagues and I won the Pulitzer for Public Service, but it came with a cost: my health, faith in my newsroom and confidence in society.

I was diagnosed with complex PTSD and began questioning how the media could play a more constructive role in our divided nation. I eventually left traditional journalism to invent the tools and strategies I needed but couldn’t find.

This inspired me to create and publish Invisible Threads, a weekly newsletter revealing the roots and shoots of toxic stress within our social and political systems. I became a certified Resilience Toolkit coach and strategist, empowering individuals and organizations to transform how stress impacts their body, mind and relationships — at home, at work, in their communities and their politics. And I’m a visiting affiliate scholar at Georgetown University's Psychology Department and senior fellow with the school's Red House research unit, incubating how we can build a sustainable economy of wellbeing.

In a world where our old ways of thinking no longer serve us, I believe we need to know better to do better to feel better. By honoring the body's wisdom and understanding the far-reaching effects of stress, we can build the resilient systems our future requires.