The Data-Driven Reporting Project

Yang Sun is a Data Editor at The Globe and Mail in Toronto, where she transforms raw data into compelling stories, from months-long investigative projects to fast-turnaround daily stories. Her work spans a broad range of public-interest topics: tracking government spending and accountability, investigating Canada's emergency care and primary care crises, and creating reader-focused tools that help Canadians choose the right credit cards or plan their dream bucket-list trips. With over a decade of journalism experience across China, the United States, and Canada, Yang brings a genuinely international perspective to data-driven storytelling. She is passionate about the craft of data journalism and the standards that define it: rigorous methodology, human-centered narratives, and the creative visual and interactive forms that make complex findings accessible to everyday readers. Yang holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. 

Cathy Clabby is a journalist based in North Carolina. Most recently she was the Southeast investigations editor for McClatchy, where her team published on topics as diverse as Big Ag’s secretive poultry farming, the toll of investor landlords, legislators' payouts to friends and allies, and unfettered HOAs. An alum of the Knight Science Journalism fellowship at MIT, she is a former science magazine and book editor. She's reported on science, the environment, medicine, higher education and politics. 

Ryan Pitts is managing director at Big Local News, a data journalism program at Stanford that creates datasets, tools, and trainings to help local newsrooms do important accountability journalism without the need for extensive programming knowledge or their own specialists.

Previously, Ryan was a local journalist and programmer before leading the product and multimedia team at a regional newspaper in Spokane, Wash. He helped build Census Reporter, an open-source project that makes census data easier for journalists to use, and was co-director at OpenNews, an organization that helps journalists change their newsrooms by sharing resources, knowledge, and peer support. Ryan was a 2025 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford, and is a board member for Census Reporter, the Murrow News Fellowship in Washington state, and for RANGE, a community newsroom in Spokane.

Jennifer LaFleur, a data journalist, editor and long-time teacher of data journalists, is the assistant professor of data journalism at UC Berkeley. Jennifer was formerly a senior editor at the Center for Public Integrity, an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom that focuses on investigating inequality. She joined Public Integrity from the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, where she was data journalist in residence. Jennifer previously served as a senior editor for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, where she managed an award-winning team of data journalists, investigative reporters and fellows.

Jennifer’s journalism career includes serving as the director of data journalism at ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom, and similar roles at The Dallas Morning News and other newspapers. She is a former training director for Investigative Reporters & Editors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting, and previously served on IRE’s board of directors. She is a board member of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, an independent grant-making organization, and is a member of the advisory board for the National Center for Disability and Journalism, a nonprofit, educational organization that provides support and training to improve representation of disability in the media.

Emmanuel Martinez is an investigative data reporter for The Washington Post, where he uses data, statistics and programming to tell stories. While at The Post, he has examined the role that the U.S. Government, in collaboration with the Catholic Church, played in removing Native American children from their homes and placing them into boarding schools in the 1900s. He’s also reported on child labor, self-driving vehicles and housing issues.

Before joining The Post, he worked at The Markup and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting in a similar role. His work there examined access to homeownership and mortgage discrimination, where he analyzed millions of housing records to prove that people of color were being routinely denied mortgages.

His work has garnered awards such as The Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award, The George Foster Peabody Award, and The Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. In 2019, he was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.

Laura Moscoso is a journalist and educator with 15 years of experience, currently living in Manatí, Puerto Rico. She has worked in small nonprofits, national publications, and both public and private universities. Laura joined the IRE training team in 2022 as a Training Director, where she leads custom training, the Spanish training program, and collaboration efforts with sister organizations. When she's not working, you might find her at the beach, enjoying live music, or at the movies, eating lots of popcorn. She is a foodie and a reader.

Aarushi Sahejpal is a professorial lecturer in data journalism at American University in Washington, D.C. and Data Editor at The Investigative Reporting Workshop.

Adrian D. Garcia is the managing editor of data visualizations for Financial Times Specialist. He previously covered personal finance topics as a data reporter and analyst for Bankrate and reported on business, trends and other news stories for Denverite the Fort Collins Coloradoan and other news organizations in Colorado. He serves on the NAHJ Business Journalism Task Force. And in the fall, he teaches an intro to data journalism course at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa) is Editor at Large at Grist and one of the foremost journalists covering Indigenous affairs in America. He previously served as Editor in Chief of the Texas Observer and Indigenous Affairs editor at High Country News. His investigations have been honored with a George Polk Award, an IRE Award, a Sigma Award, a National Magazine Award nomination, and investigative awards from the Gannett Foundation. A multiple Richard LaCourse Award winner, Ahtone was also named Journalist of the Year by Covering Climate Now in 2024. A past president of the Indigenous Journalists Association and a 2017 Nieman Fellow, he is a co-founder of the Indigenous News Alliance.

Terra Ciolfe is a journalist and a professor at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto, Canada, where she teaches data and investigative journalism. She has worked at various news organizations, from hyper-local outlets to national ones, such as The Canadian Press, Macleans Magazine, CBC and The Globe and Mail.