I'm a data scientist, strategist, journalist, and full-stack software engineer with a passion for building data-driven products that help people navigate the world around them. I run the data team at The Marshall Project, a nonprofit newsroom that covers the US criminal justice system.
In recent years, I've focused on journalism at The Chicago Tribune, NPR, ProPublica, Chicago Reporter, The Marshall Project, and Quinto Elemento Lab. My work been a crucial part of several award-winning projects, including the Premio Gabo and COLPIN award for coverage of clandestine mass graves in Mexico, the Goldsmith award for a sweeping look at Mississippi's prisons, and the Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of police dog bites around the US.
My projects and career have followed an eclectic path, with digital media and software development as the thread that binds it together. I built one of the first high school newspaper websites in the late 1990s (for my efforts, I got a "B"), as well as a proto-social platform for young people called E-Teen. I moved to Chicago and got a degree in physics, but my interests led me to the housing projects, where I helped start The Invisible Institute. Later in the 2000s, I was a founder and longtime leader of FreeGeek Chicago, was part of the team that built the first vocalo.org for WBEZ Chicago, and worked at FermiLab on network monitoring visualization.
First published 2024; on-going.
A data product that visualizes data from the US Census' Annual Survey of Public Employment & Payroll from 2003-2023, based on the toolkit released by The Marshall Project. The project uses Python for data processing, and SvelteKit, Tailwind, Layercake and SST to build and deploy the frontend. The code is available on Github.
First published 2024; on-going.
I conceived and oversee the development of this guide for criminal judges in Cleveland, addressing a critical information gap as more voters engage in judicial elections.
The project won the Gather Award in 2024 and is The Marshall Project's most wide-reaching local initiative.
2017-2024
Since 2017, I've been helping a group of journalists in Mexico cover clandestine mass graves with data processing and mapping. Our first investigation in 2018 showed at least 1,000 more graves than the government had acknowledged to date. Our follow-up analysis in 2023 revealed the government had acknowledged another 3,000 graves that were been undisclosed.
The work's resonance comes from the ecosystem. We share assets -- embeds, static graphics, and videos. The journalists I work with think deeply about their role in civic society and its limits: While our journalism may spur change, it can never bring back the disappeared.
2018-2019 (project on-going)
I partnered with City Bureau to build this community effort to scrape public meeting calendars while working as a data journalist for ProPublica Illinois. The software is used in locations around the country to coordinate Documenters taking notes at these meetings.
2005-2014 (closed in 2021, resumed 2024 with new leaders)
From 2005 - 2014, I helped started and acted as a primary leader of FreeGeek Chicago, a computer recycling organization that put thousands of free and low-cost computers using open source software in the hands of Chicagoans.
2001-2008
In 2001, I co-founded The View From The Ground, a publication on human rights and police abuse during the final days of Chicago public housing. We dubbed it a publication of the "Invisible Institute."
Though I moved on in the mid-2000s, the organization has thrived in recent years. In 2022, my career came full circle when I collaborated with the Invisible Institute as data editor at The Marshall Project on a Pulitzer-winning project. The Institute won two more Pulitzers in 2024.
