Alexis is a journalist who's writing her first book, a travel memoir about her solo journey through French-speaking Africa.

She left her reporting job with the Houston Chronicle in May 2008 to backpack through West Africa, Cameroon and Madagascar, freelancing for various publications along the way. Through her travel blog, Inkslinging in Africa, Alexis brought readers along for the ride as she voyaged by boat to Timbuktu, to Cameroon to deliver a gift to a grieving polygamous family and to Madagascar to discover the howling Indri lemur.

Her travels don't end with Africa; Alexis has also bungee-jumped in New Zealand, road-tripped through Ireland and fondue-dipped in Paris. What's next? South America.

During her three years with the Houston Chronicle, Alexis covered politics out of the paper's Washington bureau, then transitioned to the Houston newsroom to report on city hall. Later, as a health reporter, she followed a young couple as they tried to save their unborn twins from a rare disease and chronicled a sick teenage boy's wait for a donor kidney.

Alexis learned to love journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where she completed the master's-degree program. She's also an alumnus of Colby College.

She lives outside Albany, NY, and coaches a girls' softball team. She does some of her best thinking while running.