Staff writer Elena Lesley is on a one-year leave of absence from the Times, working as a Fulbright Fellow in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is collaborating with Cambodian and international publications to provide online and print coverage of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. She expects to return to Florida in March 2009.

Lesley began working for the Times in 2005, reporting on health care, social services, the city of Crystal River and Congressional District 5 in the paper's Citrus County bureau. In April 2007, she moved to the Clearwater bureau, covering general assignment and the city of Tarpon Springs.

After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in political science, Lesley spent a year (2004-2005) as a Henry Luce Scholar in Cambodia working for the Phnom Penh Post. She has written for a number of publications, including the Oregonian, the Sacramento Bee and the Providence Journal.

Lesley was born in Oregon City, Ore., and grew up in Portland.

E-mail:

ELesley@alumni.brown.edu

ELesley@tampabay.com