Photo by Janelle Carlson
Hi, I’m Erin!
I’m a journalist and editor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I like to write and think at the intersection of people, culture, and politics.
I’m currently helping to build an independent,
worker- and community-owned news cooperative in Pittsburgh.
You can read about those efforts here.
I also write about home, survival, resistance, and culture
on my blog, Le cœur a faim.
I am available for anywhere-based arts and culture writing or editing work — I’m flexible, but features are my preferred medium. Contact me here.
About my work
I spent 10 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where I wore many hats, including front page designer and arts and culture editor. In 2019, I was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning staff honored for our coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting. That same year, I was awarded for my visual work at the Post-Gazette by the Society for News Design in a global competition.
For more than three years, I was on strike against the Post-Gazette with many of my union colleagues in what has been called the first media strike of the digital age. It would become the longest media strike in U.S. history and the longest-ever in Pittsburgh. You can read and listen to more about the strike here — but it’s a story we’re still telling.
Before moving to Pittsburgh, I worked as an editor and designer for global publications at The New York Times and for The Advocate’s Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Lafayette bureaus. I’m also a 2015 alumna of the Dow Jones News Fund’s editing internship program, and I have a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Louisiana State University.
In 2020, I earned a certificate in the fundamentals of social work from the Community College of Allegheny County. I was enrolled in the Master of Social Work program at Pennsylvania Western University from 2021 to 2023, but withdrew from classes due to ongoing health issues and the Post-Gazette strike. For some time, I worked as a HUD caseworker in and around Pittsburgh, learning and applying the housing first model to help clients gain income and live independently.
I am active on Instagram, Bluesky, and the website formerly known as Twitter.