When I was the tender age of five, my parents whisked me away from the great state of Massachusetts to live in Europe. The Zissis family eventually moved back to the United States, where I survived six full years at Boston Latin, the oldest public school in the country. Those early years abroad sparked a passionate interest in international affairs, leading me to a career researching global issues as a writer, editor, and photographer. I spent substantial amounts of time in Mexico, Bolivia, and Britain; traveled through much of Europe, Latin America, and northern Africa; and earned a master’s in journalism and Latin American studies from New York University.

As a journalist, I have covered Mexican immigration to the United States, the 2009 Honduran coup, Turkish women’s rights, Pakistani tribal areas, and China’s environmental crisis. My writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, Amnesty International magazine, and NYTimes.com and my photography in ReVista, a textbook series, and promotional materials for Elderhostel and the Discover America Brazil Foundation.

I hold a particular interest in new media, shown by my experience as the managing editor of AS/COA Online, the website of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas. While working as a website staff writer for the Council on Foreign Relations, I managed production of an interactive guide to the North Korean nuclear crisis that helped CFR.org’s Crisis Guide series win a 2007 Knight-Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism.