Before joining The Associated Press, Brook lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for three and a half years, initially arriving as a Henry Luce Scholar. He has since worked as a freelance journalist covering Southeast Asia with a focus on human rights and environmental issues. His reporting has appeared in a range of publications, including The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Nikkei Asia, Mongabay and Vice World News. He also served as an editor with CamboJA News, one of Cambodia’s last independent media outlets at the time. He grew up in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in history. He speaks conversational Khmer and Spanish and once attended an elephant’s wedding.
Beat: Louisiana Statehouse, with focus on infrastructure
Louisiana, and New Orleans especially, has had a front-row seat to the failures of infrastructure during an era of climate change. This reporter, based in New Orleans, covers the Louisiana statehouse with an eye toward delving into the spending and decisions by lawmakers on topics like levees and floodwalls to coastal evacuation highways that affect people across the state.