Just a bit more...
I’m a Data and Investigative Reporter at Knox News, a Gannett-owned local newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee. I've recently started covering K-12 education in Knox County — which is especially exciting because I didn't grow up in the U.S., and getting to look at the public education system closely is equal parts fun and confusing!
I have a master’s degree in Data Journalism from Columbia University where I took classes in environmental reporting, algorithms and mapping, among other courses. I’ve also worked as a city beat reporter for a local newsroom in Idaho, worked for Reuters as a publisher and as an editor at a media start-up.
In my current role as the first and only data reporter in the newsroom, I’ve worked on building solutions to have datasets ready in case of breaking news, including databases for property ownership and crime stats.
For midterm elections, I built results' data maps that had never been done in this newsroom before. A lot of Knox County and Tennessee’s data is made available in formats that are not machine readable, and I’m constantly finding ways to navigate that, both by making connections with data officers and through coding solutions.
For visualization, I’m trained in making interactives with Python libraires such as Altair and Plotly and I’m working on improving my D3 skills. I enjoy mapping with QGIS, Mapbox and Google Earth Pro. For quick turnarounds, I also rely on free resources such as Datawrapper and Flourish.
I once wrote a weekly newsletter about life in NYC and grad school — but, I'm unsure now of the direction I want to take it to.
I take great pride in uncovering hidden stories with a fresh perspective in unfamiliar situations!
Download my resume