Nirvi Shah

For the nation's education newspaper of record, I cover special education, nutrition, health, violence and bullying. I blog about special education at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced.

• I covered consumer affairs and personal finance, making sense of the complex, ever-changing financial world and shedding light on scams.
• I blogged about living within my means -- or trying to -- at miamiherald.typepad.com/no_spend_zone.
• I was the senior education reporter on a team covering Broward and Miami-Dade public schools, two of the largest in the country. Combined, they enroll 600,000 students. I wrote about the state's complex standardized testing system, the federal No Child Left Behind law, disparities in educational opportunities and school nutrition, among other issues.
• I regularly enhanced print coverage with audio reports and by breaking stories online at MiamiHerald.com.

• During the six years I spent at The Post, I covered education, county government and wrote a column for the food section about cooking for one.
• I occasionally covered crime and courts stories, hurricanes, space shuttle launches and disasters and other general assignment stories. One of these stories, about a home movie filmed by American soldiers in Iraq, won a third place Green Eyeshade award in the breaking news category.
• I frequently gathered audio for radio reports and collaborated with photographers to create audio slideshows.

• Working at my hometown paper fresh out of college, I had to view the education system I had recently left with a fresh eye. My work led to the resignation of contractors hired by the school district to correct mistakes they had made as former employees.

• Minored in environmental studies

• For one semester, I lived with a Spanish family and studied Spanish language, art history and the economy.