Saundra Amrhein is a journalist and author of Green Card Stories, the recently released book of dramatic narratives and compelling photos of 50 recent U.S. immigrants.

A former reporter at the St. Petersburg Times, she has been a journalist for more than 17 years, focusing on immigration, asylum and refugee issues.

A native of Pittsburgh, she obtained a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and started her career as a reporter at the legendary City News Bureau of Chicago wire service before working at Florida Today and the Cincinnati Enquirer newspapers. In 1999 she went to the then-St. Petersburg Times, now the Tampa Bay Times, where she spent the next decade covering government and immigration in Florida.

She has reported from Honduras and Cuba during her years as a journalist and has studied at language schools in Guatemala, Mexico and Ecuador, becoming fluent in Spanish.

In addition to completing her new book, Green Card Stories, she is finishing a master's degree in Latin American & Caribbean Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa and a thesis based on years of her research in Cuba.