Age: 33
MPH epidemiology and biostatistics ’08
Crossword constructor, Washington Post Magazine
My Greatest Accomplishment
Writing crosswords full-time for the Washington Post is a dream job. However, I’d say my best personal accomplishment was the journey I took to get there. Before landing the position with the Post, I first had to develop the skill to write puzzles and the confidence that any puzzle I write is going to be clever and enjoyable. Knowing that I can create something fun for people each week and love doing it is what drove me to pursue puzzles as a career in the first place.
How Drexel Helped
I can’t say I imagined while in a public health program that I would end up writing crosswords as a career, but one advantage of a public health education is that you learn to look at problems from many different angles in order to solve them. If you’re studying a particular disease, you’re examining its potential causes, its risk factors, the groups affected by it, the methods of prevention, and so on. That’s a much harder puzzle to solve than the kinds I create. Recognizing new ways of thinking about problems, like the clues you’ll see in my crosswords, is a key part of my job.
Where I’ll Be In Five Years
Still writing crosswords. I hope I’ll have published a book or two of my puzzles, and perhaps create new puzzle challenges that no one’s thought of yet. You never know.