I am currently covering medical issues for the Billings Gazette, Montana's largest newspaper, where I have been since September 2010.

I have worked at newspapers in South Dakota, Minnesota, California and Montana. Before coming to the Billings Gazette, I worked as the editorial page editor and columnist at The Desert Sun in Palm Springs.

While in Palm Springs, I was named one of Gannett's Top Ten Supervisors of the Year primarily for helping lead the effort to create a web site that run by youth, for youth.

In December 2011 I received a one-week fellowship to study at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Articles

Dr. Keith Foster, Shodair Children's Hospital Helena, Montana

Suicide is 2nd leading cause of death among Montana youth

For at least 35 years, Montana has had one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, and a disturbing number of those self-imposed death sentences have been young people. Guns are the most common means of committing suicide in Montana, which ranks third in the nation for per capita gun possession.

Teenage girl fatally shoots herself days before '08 school year begins

After talking with their daughter's friends and reading the emails they got from her, it was easy for Garret and Tammie McFarland to see all the signs they had missed before 14-year-old Nicole committed suicide. This story is part of Cindy Uken's look at the suicide epidemic in Montana.

Examining Montana's struggle with mental health care

Montana is a vast, frontier state with many small towns scattered in rural counties. A few of those counties don’t have a single doctor or even a pharmacy. For Montanans suffering with mental health issues, those distances can be especially devastating.