Rachel is a visual journalist for Fusion focused on innovative digital storytelling. She is an interactive designer, developer and project manager passionate about audience development and creating engaging and profitable journalism on all platforms. Rachel is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Communication and regularly teaches workshops on design and code for the journalism community. She was previously the interactive editor for the Sun Sentinel, where she created an interactive team solely focused on digital storytelling. She has also worked at the Los Angeles Times, Columbia Missourian and Huntsville Times.
Recent Work
The Sun Sentinel’s Interactive Team
When I joined the Sun Sentinel as a print designer, I quickly saw the potential for a dedicated multimedia storytelling unit. I lobbied editors, and I started the interactive team. That required creating new workflows, training the entire newsroom and overcoming a lot of pushback. In just two years, the team grew from one person to two full-time staffers and an intern, and created a portfolio of more than 100 pieces involving longform design, data visualization and daily maps and quizzes. I am continuing that work at Fusion, where I’ve been since mid-September. I play the lead role in collaboration between the interactive team and the rest of the newsroom. I am conducting newsroom trainings, and I’ve been working on efficiency and collaboration with all other departments.