I was recently honored to be included in Drexel University Magazine's first ever "Top 40 Alumni Under 40" list thanks to my penning of Because We Are. Here are the blurbs I offered for their piece:


My Greatest Accomplishment: Publishing Because We Are: A Novel of Haiti. The book has been a labor of love, unlike anything I’ve attempted before. It’s a murder mystery with a social conscience, a searing portrait of life in Haiti set against the backdrop of the 2010 quake, humanitarian aid efforts, and the outbreak of cholera ravaging the Haitian poor to this very day. Rather than focus on a genius private investigator or cunning police inspector, this mystery features a pair of unlikely detectives: two remarkable children, inspired by real kids I met in the slum.

The story is a “nonprofit novel,” so the net proceeds from all its sales are donated back to development and human rights organizations in Haiti. It seemed like the natural way to give back to a community and country that gave me so much.

How Drexel Helped: Because We Are was born directly from my experience creating the Haiti Justice Project at Drexel Law and through a semester spent in Port-au-Prince, thanks to the co-op program. Without these opportunities, this story would never have been birthed.

Where I’ll Be in Five Years:  Living abroad, using my legal training to work for peace and justice in the developing world—and seeing two sequels to Because We Are resting on fans’ bookshelves everywhere.