ABOUT ME
Investigative Database Reporter
I've been a Washington Post data reporter since 2018.
I'm embedded on the investigations desk, but, I've worked across the newsroom including, which includes writing for the national, metro and foreign desk.
I've investigated flaws in federal programs, the burdens community residents endure related to high parking and traffic tickets and I've helped guide the creation of the mass killings database, which tracks mass killings in which four or more people are killed, not including the shooter.
With Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson, Carolyn Van Houten and a team of Post journalists, he reported "Abused by the Badge," an investigative series that exposed how hundreds of U.S. law enforcement officers have sexually abused children. The series prompted the Justice Department to issue new guidelines for the nation's 20,000 school police officers.
My work involves taking datasets, analyzing them and turning them into narratives that reveal the stories hidden deep in spreadsheets. My tools of choice are R, QGIS, OpenRefine and sometimes Python. With those tools I can clean, explore and visualize data. I'm also familiar with SQL and Javascript.
I started working for the Post in Summer 2018 after leaving the Houston Chronicle. In 2018, I was a part of the team recognized as a Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of Hurricane Harvey.
I was also a part of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize winning team that won for what the Pulitzer committee described as a sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automative rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings. I managed and analyzed the database that tracked such events, providing insights into each incident.
In addition to reporting, I also teach journalism at UC Berkeley and I'm a senior fellow at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, working with journalists in the university's data journalism fellowship.
Find me on Linkedin to connect.
