My name is Phoenix, and I write under the pen name pixie.

Dear Friends,

Growing up, I was a kid reporter for a paper called Children’s Express. My first piece was on the mistreatment of Big Cats for entertainment, a cause I have been passionate about ever since. I devoured 60 Minutes with my mom every Sunday and watched the evening news with my grandparents. The first humanitarian news report I remember vividly was Princess Diana’s work with The HALO Trust. Those images shaped my interests and expanded my understanding of the world.

I attended an all-girls Sacred Heart school for high school, and that was when the early ideas for what would later become The Friday Brief newsletter came together. The third goal of Sacred Heart institutions is to cultivate “a social awareness that impels to action.” In 2020, during the early days of pandemic lockdowns, I created Girl Friday in that same spirit as a space for friends to learn more about pressing issues and work together to support solutions for those challenges. Our mission is “for a world of good.”

Well-researched, fact-based reporting is central to Girl Friday because I majored in biology and chemistry at Howard University and then focused on jurisprudence for my master’s degree at American University. I also love great prose and unraveling mysteries. I interned for a crime scene unit in high school and college and never lost interest in investigations. So, I returned to graduate school to earn a master’s degree in crime and thriller writing at the University of Cambridge.

I spent most of my career traveling around the world with the U.S. Department of State, and then I joined the private sector to work in external affairs and sustainability. These days, I’m consulting through Girl Friday, helping clients navigate Washington, D.C., and global affairs. I bring all of these experiences - and knowledge from friends and former colleagues - to Girl Friday. 

I hope you will join us!