The Data-Driven Reporting Project

Dana Amihere is a designer, developer and data journalist. She’s committed to solutions reporting that centers racial and social justice, especially through data-driven storytelling. Amihere left newsrooms in 2021 to start Code Black Media, a digital media consultancy that lives at the intersection of data, design and equity. She previously worked in data reporting, interactive design and news apps development for 89.3 LAist, The Dallas Morning News, Pew Research Center and The Baltimore Sun.

Amihere has taught data journalism and interaction design at conferences and colleges across the country.

Andrew Ba Tran is an investigative data reporter. Before the Post, he worked with data at The Connecticut Mirror and The Boston Globe. He has worked in newsrooms at the Virginian-Pilot and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He’s a Metpro Fellow and a Chips Quinn Scholar. He is also an adjunct professor at American University.

Jill Castellano is the Data Editor at ConsumerAffairs, where she is launching a data-based investigative reporting team focused on consumer issues. Jill has worked for The Salt Lake Tribune, The Desert Sun, inewsource and USA TODAY, earning a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2018 for her work on the deaths of undocumented border crossers. Her passion is shedding light on injustices and holding the powerful accountable.Description goes here

Jayme Fraser is an investigative data journalist for USA TODAY who lives in the Rocky Mountain West. She primarily focuses on exposing the causes of inequities and showing the solutions to them. She quantifies the damage caused by discriminatory policies, flawed data collection and biased gatekeeping of knowledge then connects those rigorous findings to the voices of people with lived experience. She has covered campaigns, nonprofits, land use, substance use policy, health care, education, tax policy, criminal justice, religion and governments - ranging from local and state to tribal and federal. Her work has spurred changes to state laws, amendments to federal policies, updates to hospital practices, and helped to free a man wrongfully convicted of murdering his infant son. Before joining USA TODAY, she had worked for newspapers in Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Texas as well as a variety radio show and a handful of magazines. She also has taught courses and workshops on a variety of journalistic techniques, from narrative reporting to data analysis, and serves on the advisory board of a nonprofit newsroom in development. When she's not reporting, Jayme likes to hike, cross country ski, play soccer and crochet.

Dhrumil Mehta is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and the Assistant Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. He teaches courses in Columbia’s three-semester Data Journalism M.S. program and is also a Visiting Associate Professor in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, Dhrumil was a Database Journalist at FiveThirtyEight, where he built databases, scrapers, bots, and interactive graphics alongside reporting and writing about elections, public opinion and media.

Mahima Singh is an award-winning data journalist and currently a Data Editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto, where she covers global topics like the legal system, war, crime, politics, business, and natural disasters through a data-driven lens. Formerly at The Canadian Press, she reported for the investigative team at the Palm Beach Post, focusing on President Trump, school shootings, hurricanes, and the South Florida drug epidemic. In 2019, as a visual and data journalist with the BBC, she covered South and East Asian media. Mahima received the 2022 National Newspaper Award for Politics, a 2022 Canadian Association of Journalists' data journalism award nomination, and the 2019 South Asian Digital Media Award for Best Data Visualization, alongside the Sunshine State Award for Infographics & Data Visualization in Florida.Description goes here

Mago Torres is The Examination’s data editor. Mago has held leadership roles at the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and OpenNews. She worked for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on the Pandora Papers, FinCEN Files, Luanda Leaks and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers.

She was a lead journalist on an investigation into clandestine graves in Mexico which garnered numerous awards including the 2019 Gabo journalism prize, which recognizes the best investigations in Latin America. Mago is originally from Mexico City and speaks Spanish.

Francisco Vara-Orta brings nearly two decades of newsroom experience to his role as IRE's first director of diversity and inclusion. Vara-Orta first joined the IRE staff in February 2019 as a training director. While working as a trainer, he has conducted sessions on managing data and investigative reporting for journalists across the United States and internationally. He has worked for a variety of online and print publications, including Chalkbeat, Education Week, the San Antonio Express-News, Austin Business Journal, Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He earned a master’s degree in investigative/data journalism at the University of Missouri and a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he is now based again. As a gay Mexican-American raised in a single-parent Catholic working-class household, he prizes the stories all around us and thinks everyone has one to tell.

Lisa Waananen Jones is a non-tenure track associate professor of journalism and media production at The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, where she specializes in data reporting and visualization, visual communication, and rural journalism. She was part of the New York Times team awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

David Weisz is a data journalist and educator passionate about storytelling, spreadsheets and pandas (both furry and Python varieties). Creator of Data Driven, Canada's premier data journalism symposium. He is currently exploring new ways to collaborate on data-driven storytelling as a co-founder and director of Humber College's StoryLab.