While I’m originally from Northeast Minneapolis, I have called the west coast home since I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area during high school. I studied at Diablo Valley community college for two years and later I graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 2016.

After college I did just about everything: I managed visa data for an immigration law firm, investigated Capitol Hill staffers for a D.C.-based congressional watchdog, had a killed-in-the-crib-by-Covid internship on Capitol Hill, drove characters of every stripe all across San Francisco for Lyft and ran point for communications at a Bay Area refinery. But during lockdown, I decided to rededicate myself to my passions: namely writing and being of assistance.

So in 2022 I enrolled in Columbia University’s School of Journalism, and in May 2023 I graduated with honors in the top five of my class, with an MS in Journalism. As a bonus, and because of my standing, the faculty awarded me a $7,500 Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship to report any story I saw fit to investigate. But the biggest lesson I learned? Reporting (and being helpful to local communities) is 10,000x better than writing.

After graduation, I spent six months as a reporting fellow at Honolulu Civil Beat. I was largely a general assignment reporter covering a mix of breaking news and the criminal justice beat until the Maui wildfires wiped Lahaina off the map. On a dime I pivoted to all my energy to Maui, from covering the potential spread of arsenic across the burn-zone to digging up decade-old reports warning state officials of the very fire killed 102 people. Since over $500 million in funds and aid poured into Maui — and much of it without oversight — I started a “follow-the-money” series scrutinizing where disaster relief ended up, uncovering several documented fraud schemes in the process. That reporting contributed to new legislation requiring nonprofits and fundraisers to register with Hawaii's charity oversight division during declared disasters. Some of my work was later cited when the staff was later named a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist in Breaking News Reporting.

Since then I have been a research editor with The Week, based in Manhattan. But for the last three years, I used my spare time and my Pulitzer grant to make repeated trips to Minnesota to investigate a frothing tale of strife between Native and white communities in central Minnesota. What has followed is a longform and complex story about a legal battle that could someday dissolve a reservation. This deeply researched narrative draws on the voices of local residents to explore the history of these communities, the roots of today's tensions, and the paradoxes of living together inside a reservation.

As of June 2026, the forthcoming story will be published in The Delacorte Review.

In my spare-spare time, I’m an avid photographer and film geek. You can find my photos on IG @asckew and you can reach me at ask2292 at columbia dot edu.