Floored to have been chosen in the #PulitzerStaffPicks and featured in the @pulitzercenter's 2020 A Year in Stories.

My project with @eloncomm took me to northern Brazil where I reported on the resurgence of leprosy and spoke to those on the frontlines of the Biblical disease https://twitter.com/pulitzercenter/status/1341749174275104771

While in Belém, I covered a two-day conference that brought together infectious disease experts, who were discussing new ways to eliminate leprosy.

Read about modern tactics in my field note, below:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/elusive-threat-experts-strategize-ways-modernize-leprosy-detection-and-tracking-brazil

While in Pará, I traveled to the remote village of Prata and spoke with residents, who had lived there since it was a leprosy colony. Many of them had developed resistance to drug treatments.

Read about their lives in my field note, below:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/developing-defense-unchanged-treatments-pave-way-drug-resistance-brazils-former-leprosy

While in Marituba, I met Maria da Silva Trindade. The 94-year-old just started going to school through a pilot program helping leprosy patients pursue their education.

Read about her love of art and hatred of homework in my field note, below:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/back-school-leprosy-patients-brazil-join-educational-pilot-program

While in Marituba, I covered a local organization lobbying for reparations — 50,000 reals, roughly $9,830 — for each of the children separated from their parents because of leprosy.

Read about their demands in my field note, below:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/requests-reparations-children-federally-isolated-leprosy-patients-demand-government#slideshow-1

Before leaving Brazil, leprologists asked me to take a leprosy evaluation to make sure I didn't start an outbreak at @elonuniversity.

Watch me go through it in my video field note, below: https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/pressing-precaution-reporter-takes-leprosy-evaluation-heading-home

Insane to think I started 2020 worried about catching leprosy.....

I filed my main story back in the U.S., after translating 18 interviews, reviewing ~5,000 images and examining hundreds of data points.

My story details the life of Denise Almeida, who has had leprosy for years. See the full multimedia project, below:
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/shorthanded-specialists-struggle-address-resurgence-leprosy-brazil

This reporting never would have come together without @kemsawyer, @lib_moe and @HollyPiepenburg. I'm also forever humbled that the @pulitzercenter/ @eloncomm gave me the chance to empower these voices.

See the other 2020 A Year in Stories, below: https://pulitzercenter.org/blog/2020-year-stories?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=2020YearInStories