AccessFest 2025 schedule

Perfecciona tus habilidades de investigación y consulta de registros públicos para encontrar bases de datos rápidamente, y aprende técnicas de negociación para conseguir lo que necesitas para tus reportajes. / Hone your research and public records skills to find databases quickly, and learn techniques to negotiate to get what you need for your reporting.

Speaker

Laura Kurtzberg, IRE & NICAR

Laura Kurtzberg is a data visualization specialist, cartographer, and a news applications developer with a particular interest in environmental stories. Laura has worked at the intersection of data journalism and design with organizations like InfoAmazonia, Ambiental Media, WLRN Public Media, and Mongabay. In her free time, Laura enjoys reading fiction, trying to learn how to play the lever harp, and crocheting!

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If you're part of a small data team—or you are the data team—this session will cover practical ways to weave data into your beat, balance quick-turn stories with deeper investigations, and make the most of limited resources. Whether you're wrangling spreadsheets solo or collaborating with a small team, we’ll share tips, tools, and strategies to help you maximize your impact.

Speakers

Cody Lillich, KTVK/KPHO-TV

Cody is an award-winning senior investigative producer at Arizona's Family 3TV/CBS 5 in Phoenix, Arizona. He has worked on investigative teams in New Orleans and his hometown of Tyler, Texas. His work focuses on integrating data journalism into stories on television and online presentations. He also compiles annual data to provide news staff with context at their fingertips for future stories.

Connect: X, LinkedIn

Kate Martin, APM Reports

Kate Martin is a correspondent at APM Reports. Over two decades, her investigative reporting has driven policy reforms, forced resignations, led to criminal indictments and spurred changes to at least six state laws or legal precedents. Most recently, she uncovered widespread violations of Illinois laws by hospitals failing to follow laws meant to protect sexual assault survivors.

Connect: X, Bluesky, LinkedIn

Justin Myers, Chicago Public Media

Justin Myers (any pronouns) is a data journalist, visual journalist, developer and parent in Chicago. They joined Chicago Public Media in 2023 as its graphics editor, serving both the Chicago Sun-Times and NPR member station WBEZ. Before that, they were the data editor for The Associated Press, where they supported data journalists across the U.S. and reporting projects around the world. They enjoy making things out of flour, yarn and code—but rarely at the same time.

Connect: Bluesky, Mastodon

Kelly Waldron, Mission Local

Kelly Waldron is a data reporter at Mission Local, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in San Francisco. Previously, she graduated from Columbia Journalism School’s data program and worked in remote sensing for a satellite company.

Connect: X, Bluesky, GitHub, LinkedIn

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News consumers want transparency when journalists use artificial intelligence in reporting. Recent survey and interview data from Trusting News shows audiences not only expect AI disclosure but also prefer detailed explanations about how AI was used and which tools were involved. This research also showed audiences are particularly uneasy about AI’s role in data analysis. This session will explore how investigative journalists can meet audience expectations while maintaining trust and credibility. Trusting News will share best practices, newsroom-tested disclosure strategies, and real-world examples of AI transparency in investigative reporting. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on how to effectively communicate AI use, address audience concerns, and ensure human oversight remains central in AI-assisted investigations.

Speakers

Jade Drummond, Núcleo Jornalismo

Jade Drummond is a Brazilian journalist, a specialist in digital journalism and Executive Director at Núcleo Jornalismo, a news organization focused on investigating the impact of technology on society. Drummond was a fellow at the ICFJ Emerging Media Leaders program in 2023.

Connect: LinkedIn

Lynn Walsh, Trusting News

Lynn Walsh is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, consultant and trainer specializing in ethics, trust and the future of information. A former investigative reporter and TV executive producer, she is a past national president and Ethics Chair of the Society of Professional Journalists and a leader in open government and FOIA initiatives. Through her consulting and teaching, she helps journalists and creators build credibility and foster a healthy information ecosystem.

Connect: LinkedIn

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Are your interviews accessible to sources with disabilities? We'll teach how to make sure you are offering the right accommodations and being a professional, accessible interviewer, from first contact through your last follow-up questions.

Speakers

Stacy Kess, Equal Access Public Media

Stacy Kess is the founder and chief of editorial for Equal Access Public Media, a national media organization dedicated to improving accessibility in journalism. Kess has been a reporter and editor for more than 25 years. She became involved in accessibility after recovering from physical injuries and working through aphasia after a head-on crash in 2017.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn

Emilia Ruzicka, Independent journalist

Emilia Ruzicka is a data journalist, researcher and editor. They recently graduated with their MA in media, culture, and technology from University of Virginia. Emilia has published work with the Poynter Institute, DataJournalism.com, the Urban Institute, the Center for News, Technology, and Innovation, and more. They are currently freelancing while searching for their next full-time role. More information about Emilia and their work can be found at emiliaruzicka.com.

Connect: LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram

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From vanishing government websites to manipulated economic data, journalists are facing increasing challenges in verifying official information. This session will cover how to investigate missing or altered government records and ensure the integrity of public-interest reporting. Panelists will discuss how to verify whether government data has been changed or removed, how to find alternative sources when public records disappear, and how to archive and preserve crucial datasets before they become inaccessible. This session is designed for journalists who rely on public records, government websites, or large datasets and need to ensure their information remains reliable and available.

Speakers

Elizabeth Clemons, Sunlight Research Center

Elizabeth is an investigative researcher. She has conducted research on various topics, including gender-based violence in areas of conflict, data privacy in Colorado and Russian disinformation targeting American public health systems. She has worked for the Department of Defense, a U.S. Ambassador to Oman and Campaign for Accountability.

Connect: LinkedIn

Mike Nolan, Sunlight Research Center

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Covering immigration can be daunting, especially keeping tabs on the ever-changing policies. This session is for anyone interested in covering immigration beyond simple narratives of the U.S.-Mexico border. Immigration is a universal topic; with reach into all aspects of news coverage. In this session, you will learn to use public datasets to help find local, state, national and international stories about unaccompanied migrant children, immigration courts, work visas, education and court challenges to immigration policy.

Speakers

Geoff Hing, The Marshall Project

Mary Sanchez, Independent journalist

Mary Sanchez is a nationally syndicated columnist with Tribune Content Agency and a familiar face and voice in Kansas City media. Sanchez’s contributions include time as the senior reporter for Kansas City PBS and a metro columnist for The Kansas City Star, member of the Star’s editorial board, in addition to her years spent reporting on race, class, criminal justice and educational issues.

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Dianne Solis, Independent journalist/Puente News Collaborative Editor-Reporter

Dianne Solis is an independent journalist and editor/writer at Puente News Collaborative. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, El Pais, the Texas Standard, KERA public radio and other outlets. She was a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News and The Wall Street Journal based in Texas and Mexico City. She has reported extensively on immigration for decades. She graduated from Northwestern and California State University, Fresno, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

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Lauren Villagran, USA TODAY Network

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In this session, reporters will learn tips and tricks to leverage AI to make their work more accessible to their audiences, from the reporting process to promoting their work. They will learn ways to look beyond the way AI tools are marketed to understand whether a tool will really help them speak to and include diverse audiences.

Speakers

Johny Cassidy, BBC

Johny Cassidy is an experienced BBC journalist with a track record in reaching underserved audiences. He’s a passionate advocate for digital accessibility and has written extensively on why all newsrooms need to understand better how certain audiences access content. Away from the BBC he’s a Fellow of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Connect: LinkedIn

Joanna Kao, Pulitzer Center

Joanna S. Kao leads the Pulitzer Center's AI Accountability Network, where she oversees a portfolio of AI and machine-learning reporting projects and develops resources for journalists looking to do AI-related reporting. Kao holds a computer science degree from MIT and an MBA from IE Business School. She has taught data visualization at Columbia Journalism School, as well as developed and taught two new accessibility courses for The New School Parsons School of Design.

Connect: LinkedIn

Stacy Kess, Equal Access Public Media

Stacy Kess is the founder and chief of editorial for Equal Access Public Media, a national media organization dedicated to improving accessibility in journalism. Kess has been a reporter and editor for more than 25 years. She became involved in accessibility after recovering from physical injuries and working through aphasia after a head-on crash in 2017.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn

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Investigative journalism projects involve so much work — but without the right storytelling techniques, readers may not engage with the material as deeply as they could. Hear from some masters of narrative nonfiction and get inspired to incorporate the best feature-writing approaches in your next investigative project. This session is presented in partnership with the Society for Features Journalism.

Speakers

Théoden Janes, The Charlotte Observer

Jack Leonard, ProPublica

Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times

Harriet Ryan, Wall Street Journal

Harriet Ryan is a reporter on The Wall Street Journal's investigations team, based in Los Angeles. She previously was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, where she shared the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and the 2023 Collier Prize for State Government Accountability.

Shawna VanNess, Newsday

Shawna VanNess is Newsday’s associate managing editor focused on content strategy. She coaches the newsroom how to take actionable insights from metrics, and leads lifestyle/entertainment coverage at the Long Island-based news organization. She was a 2025 fellow at the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia University.

Connect: LinkedIn

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Impactful reporting on the criminal justice system hinges on a journalist’s ability to access detailed information about the inner workings of that system. This information has always been hard to come by and is only growing more so during a time of declining transparency. In this panel, attendees will have the opportunity to learn from their peers who are experts in obtaining data, court records, and public records from criminal justice agencies and using that information to tell powerful stories about everything from fatal police chases to jail deaths. The panelists will offer concrete recommendations for obtaining records and story ideas worth investigating in attendees' own communities.

Speakers

Laura Bennett, The Center for Just Journalism

Laura Bennett is the director of The Center for Just Journalism. The Center connects journalists with reliable information on critical public safety and criminal legal issues and helps reporters and educators identify and implement practice changes that foster rigor, curiosity, and nuance, rather than sensationalism and anecdotes. She previously worked at FWD.us and The Pew Charitable Trusts where she led major policy and research projects in states across the country.

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Ethan Corey, The Appeal

Ethan served as The Appeal's research and projects editor for four years, where he led and supported data- and records-driven stories on the criminal-legal system. In 2022, he filed a FOIA suit against the U.S. Department of Justice seeking the release of in-custody death records reported under the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act. Last year, a federal judge ordered the DOJ to release records on more than 50,000 deaths.

Connect: X, Bluesky, GitHub, LinkedIn

Jesse Marx, San Diego State University

Jesse Marx is an educator and journalist whose work focuses on police, politics and labor in a time of extreme inequality. He is a former deputy investigative editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and former associate editor at Voice of San Diego. His byline has also appeared in Wired, The Nation, In These Times and San Diego Magazine, and he helped launch the community newspaper All Rise.

Connect: X, LinkedIn

Paige Pfleger, WPLN / Nashville Public Radio

Paige Pfleger is the senior criminal justice reporter for WPLN News, Nashville Public Radio, and the southern chapter leader for the Association of Gun Violence Reporters. She has investigated gun dispossession, domestic violence and juvenile justice as a fellow with ProPublica’s Local Reporting network. Her investigative work has resulted in policy proposals at Tennessee’s state capitol and has been recognized by IRE and the Livingston Awards.

Connect: X, Bluesky

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From contrast to color blind awareness, we need to start with an awareness before starting to build our charts. Audio from screen readers is important for users limited or no sight. Finally, it's important to factor in dexterity. When users have limited dexterity or lack of limbs, how do we expect users to engage in our charts and interactives?

Speakers

Patrick Garvin, Independent Journalist

James Ku, Al Jazeera

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In an era of backlash against diversity, equity, and belonging efforts—both inside newsrooms and in the broader society—how can investigative journalists deepen their own internal cultures while sharpening their external reporting on systems of exclusion? This panel explores how newsrooms can stay committed to equitable hiring and retention while also elevating stories about the erosion of civil rights, attacks on marginalized communities, and systemic barriers to truth-telling. How do we sustain equitable practices in our own newsrooms amid legal, political, and institutional resistance? How do we rebuild trust with communities whose lives and truths are too often overlooked or extracted? This session explores how a deep commitment to belonging—internally and externally—can make investigative journalism more ethical, impactful, and trusted. Panelists will examine how relational journalism practices and inclusive newsroom cultures together fuel more nuanced investigations and broader democratic participation.

Speakers

Emma Carew Grovum, Kimbap Media

Emma Carew Grovum is the founder of Kimbap Media, collaborating at the intersection of tech and audience, and a partner at Media Bridge Partners, working to transform newsrooms through culture and strategy. Recently, she co-founded the News Product Alliance, and developed an accelerator for journalists of color called Upward. She previously held cross-disciplinary roles at The Marshall Project, The Daily Beast, The New York Times-Opinion and The Star Tribune.

Connect: LinkedIn, Website (Kimbap), Website (personal)

Laura Garcia, San Antonio Report

Laura Garcia is managing editor of the San Antonio Report and president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists. Garcia previously was the evening news editor at The Texas Tribune and an award-winning reporter covering the business of health at the San Antonio Express-News and a health/nonprofits reporter at the Victoria Advocate. She graduated from Texas State University and has served as regional coordinator for the Society of Professional Journalists.

Connect: LinkedIn

Jill Geisler, Loyola University Chicago

Joanne Griffith, Marketplace

Joanne Griffith is the chief content officer for American Public Media’s Marketplace, where she oversees multichannel strategy across broadcast, on-demand and digital platforms. She is the founder of En(title)d! a coaching and conversation space for leaders of color in creative industries.

Connect: LinkedIn

Martin Reynolds, Maynard Institute

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Journalists in the field have been injured and detained by immigration agents as the Trump administration has ramped up its attacks on the press. While no reporting assignment is without risk, there are ways to avoid confrontation while covering tense events such as immigration protests and ICE detentions. This panel may be especially helpful for foreign-born journalists and those who do not present as white on navigating another layer in safely interacting with law enforcement.

Speakers

Maritza L. Félix, Conecta Arizona

Maritza L. Félix is an award-winning freelance journalist, producer and writer based in Arizona. She is the founder and director of Conecta Arizona, a Spanish-language news service connecting communities in Arizona and Sonora through digital platforms. Maritza created and hosts the podcast Cruzando Líneas and co-produces and co-hosts Comadres al Aire.

Connect: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky

Renee Griffin, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Renee Griffin is a staff attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, where she primarily oversees the Legal Hotline and facilitates rapid response to legal issues faced by journalists. She also contributes to the Reporters Committee’s direct litigation, amicus briefing, pre-publication review and other legal work.

Ana Ley, The New York Times

Ana Ley writes about immigration in New York City for The New York Times. Previously, she was a beat reporter at five newspapers across the country. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2021 while she was at The Virginian-Pilot, and the next year, she was part of a team that was a Pulitzer finalist for stories about New York’s deadliest fire in decades. In 2023, she contributed to Hannah Dreier’s Pulitzer-winning series about migrant child labor.

Connect: Bluesky, X

Joel Simon, Journalism Protection Initiative, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism (CUNY)

Seth Stern, Freedom of the Press Foundation

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Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. But state and local governments also shape what is happening on the ground – from local law enforcement cooperation with ICE to laws criminalizing aid to undocumented immigrants to others mandating local inspections of immigration detention centers. This workshop will give an overview of recent trends in state and local immigration laws and offer tips on federal, state and local data and records that reporters can use to examine immigration enforcement in their communities.

Speakers

José Ignacio Castañeda Perez, Spotlight Delaware

José Ignacio Castañeda Perez is an award-winning trilingual investigative reporter at Spotlight Delaware, a nonprofit newsroom, where he leads the organization's Spanish-language efforts through Spotlight Delaware en Español. He currently serves as one of three fellows with the 2025 Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Fellowship with Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Connect: LinkedIn, X

Jill Castellano, The Marshall Project

Jill Castellano is a data reporter for The Marshall Project covering criminal justice and immigration. She has worked for ABC Owned Television Stations, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Desert Sun and inewsource. She shared a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2018 for her work with USA TODAY on the deaths of undocumented border crossers.

Paloma Esquivel, First Amendment Coalition

Paloma Esquivel is a press education specialist with the First Amendment Coalition. Before joining FAC, she worked for nearly two decades as a journalist, including 17 years at the Los Angeles Times, where she covered housing with a focus on renters, was an investigative reporter on the education team, investigated immigration detention centers and was Inland Empire bureau chief, tasked with covering a region of more than 4 million people.

Wendy Fry, CalMatters

Wendy Fry is an Emmy-winning multimedia investigative journalist who reports on poverty and inequality for the California Divide team. Based in San Diego and Mexico, Wendy has been covering the California border region for more than 15 years and covers immigration, reparations and issues affecting San Diego-area families.

Connect: X

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Covering special education has become even more important this school year. The Trump administration has gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and distribution methods for federal funding may change. Will there be an increase in families with disability discrimination complaints struggling with bureaucratic hurdles at the state and local levels? How do reporters investigate these complaints, funding changes, and other pressing special education issues? Journalists and a lawyer examine federal changes and share hyperlocal ways to cover affected students and families.

Speakers

Selene Almazan, Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys

Selene has been a member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates since its inception in 1998 and represents parents in accessible education matters. Her subject areas include provisions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including LRE, IEP, state complaints, suspension/expulsion proceedings and federal court proceedings.

Beth Hawkins, The 74 Million

Beth Hawkins writes about education for The 74 Million, with a particular emphasis on stories about inequity, students with disabilities and LGBTQ youth and educators. She lives in Minneapolis.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn

Marta Jewson, The Lens

Marta Jewson is an education reporter for The Lens. Jewson has covered New Orleans schools for 15 years, through the nation's largest education reform experiment. She was a founding member of the outlet's Charter School Reporting Corps and was instrumental in holding schools accountable to sunshine laws during the rapid expansion of charter schools in the city. Her focus areas include special education, charter schools and public records.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn, X

Mandy McLaren, The Courier Journal

Mandy McLaren is the enterprise and investigations editor for the Courier Journal. She is a former reporter for The Great Divide, an investigative team at The Boston Globe focused on educational inequities. She was named the best education beat writer in the country in 2024 by the Education Writers Association. Before becoming a reporter, McLaren was a teacher in New Orleans. She has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from American University.

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Journalists can learn about how to more effectively tell stories about this marginalized community.

Speakers

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, The Seattle Times

Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton is a business reporter at The Seattle Times. She also covered immigration at The Denver Post after forging the newspaper's neighborhoods beat and covering social inequities in business. Boyanton chased after lawmakers on Capitol Hill as Bloomberg Government's agriculture and trade policy reporter. She has covered the Venezuelan refugee crisis in Peru, immigration in Colombia, socioeconomic issues in Guatemala and parliamentary affairs in the U.K.

Connect: X, Bluesky, LinkedIn

Anita Hofschneider, Grist Magazine

Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson, The New Atoll

Dr. Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson is a Pacific Islands journalist reporting for The Guardian. She has over 20 years covering climate, human rights, culture and gender in the Pacific. She is the founder of The New Atoll, a digital magazine centering Pacific voices, and serves as the inaugural Professor of Pacific Islander Studies at Portland State University, where her work focuses on Indigenous climate journalism and Pacific perspectives on global issues.

Connect: X, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram

Cassie Ordonio, Hawai‘i Public Radio

Cassie Ordonio is a culture and arts reporter at Hawai‘i Public Radio. She is Filipino and Chamorro from California. Her work in radio has won a Region 2 Murrow Award and a PMJA Award. Her work focuses on diasporic experience in Hawai‘i and the revitalization of cultural practices. When Cassie is not working, she's powerlifting or on a desperate hunt for good horchata.

Connect: LinkedIn

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We've all had this problem. Your editor asked for 800 words and you've written 2,000. How can you possibly tighten such a draft? Steve Padilla, an editor with the Los Angeles Times, offers sentence-level tips on how to squeeze copy -- he hates to say "cut" -- while still preserving the good stuff.

Speaker

Steve Padilla, Los Angeles Times

Steve Padilla is editor of Column One, the Los Angeles Times showcase for storytelling, and oversees Times coverage in Mexico, Latin America and the Middle East. He serves as a writing coach and lectures frequently on writing technique.

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This session will highlight key insights from the Stylebook for Gender-Sensitive Reporting by the Asia chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association. We will also share best practices for DEI coverage in Asia, empowering journalists to enhance their reporting and foster inclusivity.

Speakers

Rajneesh Bhandari, Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network

Rajneesh Bhandari is the founder and chief editor of Nepal Investigative Multimedia Journalism Network. He oversees investigations and training at NIMJN. Rajneesh is an award-winning and experienced multimedia journalist, investigative reporter, filmmaker and educator who has worked with major news outlets around the world. His multimedia work on different issues have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Aljazeera, AJ+, BBC Reel, Contrast VR, NPR and other outlets.

Connect: X, LinkedIn

Holly Chik, South China Morning Post

Holly Chik is the Hong Kong Co-Vice President of the Asian American Journalists Association's Asia Chapter. She is a trainer on gender equality, diversity and inclusion certified by WAN-IFRA Women in News.

Connect: X

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Methods from the practices of archivists, librarians, and historians can help journalists surface and use historical documents. In this session, learn about incorporating history into deep-dive stories.

Speakers

Steve Eder, The New York Times

Alexia Fernández Campbell, Bloomberg Industry Group

Nadia Hamdan, Center for Investigative Reporting

Cam Rodriguez, New York Times

Mc Nelly Torres, Independent journalist

Mc Nelly Torres is an award-winning investigative journalist and former editor at the Center for Public Integrity, where she led a team investigating inequality. Prior, Torres worked as an investigative producer for NBC6 in Miami and co-founded FCIR.org. She worked for several newspapers including the Sun-Sentinel and the San Antonio Express-News. Torres was the first Latina elected to the IRE board of directors. In 2022, Torres was a recipient of the Gwen Ifill Award.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn, Substack, Instagram

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Tax breaks given out in the name of economic development mean communities across the country have less money in their general fund to pay for public services, including the costliest and arguably most important: public education. And in school districts and cities with majority Black and Latino populations, this can be even more pronounced (including Philadelphia, Kansas City, Mo., Baton Rouge, La.). In this session, learn how to tell the story of what it means to give private companies public tax dollars - and how to use public documents to help find out how much your communities are losing. You’ll get tips on what to ask when a developer says it can’t do a project “but for” that taxpayer handout. And learn how to tell these stories against the backdrop of federal government revenue cuts to states.

Speakers

Mark Funkhouser, Funkhouser & Associates

Mark Funkhouser, president of Funkhouser & Associates, is a municipal finance expert who has spent decades in government service. As mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, during the Great Recession, Mark made the tough choices to put his city on the path to fiscal sustainability. That experience, and his experience as an auditor and as the publisher of Governing magazine, have made him a trusted and credible advisor to government officials across the country.

Arlene Martinez, Good Jobs First

Arlene Martínez joined Good Jobs First, a nonprofit corporate and government watchdog, in 2020. Before joining GJF, which maintains the Subsidy, Violation and Tax Break Tracker databases, she was a reporter with the USA TODAY Network/Ventura County Star, The Morning Call, the Los Angeles Times and Hispanic Link News Service, where her work focused on the choices people in power make when it comes to who and what gets prioritized.

Connect: Bluesky, LinkedIn, Facebook, X

Danielle McLean, freelance reporter

J. Dale Shoemaker, Investigative Post

J. Dale Shoemaker has covered economic development, government and immigration for Investigative Post since 2022. Prior, he covered government, development and labor for news outlets in Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His reporting has won numerous local and statewide awards.

Connect: X

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With mass layoffs and an unstable job market, more journalists are freelancing, out of need or by choice – and many are creating their own startups. This session will cover how to create systems and use technology to take work off your plate when pursuing an entrepreneurial venture! You’ll see a demo of the Institute for Independent Journalists’ interactive online freelance startup guide, which helps answer the key questions for ramping up a side hustle into a full-time business. Panelists will share automations, ai tools, client tracking tools and other systems for setting your rate, networking to find great assignments, and juggling multiple projects. Participants will leave the session with a slew of new tools, tech tips, and strategies for becoming an emotionally and financially sustainable independent journalists or creator.

Speakers

Ann Marie Awad, The Institute for Independent Journalists

Ann Marie Awad is the editorial director for the Institute for Independent Journalists and an award-winning audio journalist based in Denver, Colorado. Awad is also a mentor, instructor and board member at Association of Independents in Radio.

Connect: LinkedIn, Bluesky

Lygia Navarro, Independent Journalist

Mónica Ortiz Uribe, Independent journalist

Mónica Ortiz Uribe is an independent reporter born and raised in El Paso who writes about the U.S./Mexico border and the American Southwest. Her work has appeared on National Public Radio and the El Paso Times. In 2020, she co-hosted the podcast "Forgotten: The Women of Juárez" about the disappearance and murder of women in El Paso’s Mexican sister city. The production was listed among the top ten podcasts of 2020 by The Atlantic.

Shernay Williams, Independent Journalist

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En esta sesión hablaremos sobre cómo incorporar técnicas investigativas en el trabajo periodístico diario y daremos consejos prácticos sobre manejo de tiempo, organización y enfoque. / In this session, we will discuss how to incorporate investigative techniques into daily journalistic work and provide practical advice on time management, organization, and focus.

Speaker

Laura Moscoso, IRE & NICAR

Journalist and educator from Puerto Rico.

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Come to this session to learn how to accurately and respectfully report on, about, and for gender-expansive people. This session will cover topics like gender inclusive reporting, navigating sourcing for stories about the gender expansive community, and understanding the basics of harm reduction when reporting on issues that impact the community.

Speakers

Tammye Nash, Dallas Voice

Emilia Ruzicka, Independent journalist

Emilia Ruzicka is a data journalist, researcher and editor. They recently graduated with their MA in media, culture, and technology from University of Virginia. Emilia has published work with the Poynter Institute, DataJournalism.com, the Urban Institute, the Center for News, Technology, and Innovation, and more. They are currently freelancing while searching for their next full-time role. More information about Emilia and their work can be found at emiliaruzicka.com.

Connect: LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram

Kate Sosin, 19th News

Kate Sosin is one of two LGBTQ+ beat reporters at The 19th News. They focus on transgender rights, national policy and incarceration. Kate has conducted deep-dive investigations into transgender prison abuse and homicides for NBC News. They previously worked at Logo TV, INTO and Windy City Times. They live in Los Angeles.

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Health care is a wildly profitable business, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the American economy. In your community there may be companies putting revenue before care. Our panelists have years of experience covering a range of companies, including for-profit (and even so-called non-profit) hospital systems, clinics, behavioral hospitals, elder care facilities like assisted living and memory care, and pharmaceutical firms. We will show you how to find these stories and how to report them out, with lists of story ideas, sources, how to get data and how to find experts who can propose solutions.

Speakers

Phil Barber, Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Phil Barber has reported news for The Press Democrat since 2020, following a long career as a sportswriter. His investigative work has included probes of real estate investment fraud, wage theft, sexual abuse and forced sterilizations at California institutions during the age of eugenics.

Connect: X

Mary Fricker, Santa Rosa (Calif) Press Democrat, retired

Mary Fricker is a business reporter retired from The Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat. She freelances and publishes repowatch.org, which won SABEW’s Best in Business 2012 for digital blogs. Other awards include: three IRE awards, McGill Medal for Journalistic Courage, UCLA Gerald Loeb, George Polk and Associated Press. She co-authored the best-selling “Inside Job – The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans.” She graduated from the College of William & Mary.

Hannah Levintova, Mother Jones / Center for Investigative Reporting

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Two decades after an embarrassing ethics scandal forced the U.S. Congress to revamp its disclosure requirements for members accepting private trips from special interest groups, those organizations have blown a hole through those rules. An investigation by veteran IRE members and their student teams at The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Boston University reveals, for the first time, how special interests paying for House members and their staff to travel around the world are skirting requirements limiting the access lobbyists involved in the trips have to House members. The reporters examined 17,000 trips since 2012, also showing how 24 House members turned scores of trips into “influence peddling vacations” for themselves and their relatives. The team’s work led to a series of national investigative stories published in September 2024 with more on deck this year. You will leave this session ready to mine congressional private travel records and deeply probe special interest influence on House members in your state.

Speakers

Akanksha Goyal, Independent Journalist

Maggie Mulvihill, Boston University College of Communication

Maggie Mulvihill is a veteran reporter, data journalism trainer, news entrepreneur, First Amendment advocate, and attorney. An Associate Professor of the Practice in Computational Journalism at Boston University, Mulvihill’s students have won numerous regional and national awards, including this year's IRE top student honor for a collaboration with The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland.

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A key question in almost every investigation is how to work with potential sources who have vital information – but are reluctant to share it. How can you earn their trust? And how can you ensure that they are not retraumatized or harmed by helping you? This panel will equip you with the tools to connect with sources in a variety of vulnerable circumstances.

Speakers

Diana Fuentes, IRE & NICAR

As executive director of IRE, Diana R. Fuentes oversees the largest journalism organization in the U.S. with nearly 5,000 members. She has more than 35 years of award-winning journalism experience, from police reporter to publisher. A second-generation Texan fluent in Spanish, Fuentes has a bachelor's from University of Texas at Austin and a master's from Texas State. She has leadership roles in numerous professional organizations and teaches at Mizzou and Texas State.

Connect: LinkedIn

Maria Ines Zamudio, The Invisible Institute

Alissa Zhu, The Baltimore Banner

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The panel will talk through using state and federal FOIA laws to wrest records from public officials and agencies.

Speakers

Sandra Fish, Independent journalist

Sandra Fish is a kinda retired data journalist who specializes in political reporting, most recently at The Colorado Sun but also for New Mexico In Depth and other publications. She was a journalism instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder for eight years.

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Jason Leopold, Bloomberg News

Jason Leopold is a senior investigative reporter for Bloomberg News. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and is a recipient of George Polk and the Gerald Loeb awards. Leopold's FOIA was featured in a front-page story in The New York Times. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse identified Leopold as "the most active individual FOIA litigator in the United States today." Leopold was awarded the FOI award from IRE and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame.

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Kate Martin, APM Reports

Kate Martin is a correspondent at APM Reports. Over two decades, her investigative reporting has driven policy reforms, forced resignations, led to criminal indictments and spurred changes to at least six state laws or legal precedents. Most recently, she uncovered widespread violations of Illinois laws by hospitals failing to follow laws meant to protect sexual assault survivors.

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Nate Sanford, KNKX Public Radio and Cascade PBS

Nate Sanford is a reporter for KNKX Public Radio and Cascade PBS in Seattle. He covers political power and policy dynamics in Washington state, often with an emphasis on issues facing young adults. His position is supported by the Murrow News Fellowship. He previously covered city politics at the Inlander, an alternative-weekly newspaper in Spokane.

Connect: X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, KNKX

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Investigative journalism is a powerful tool for accountability—but many of the reporters best positioned to tell stories by and from marginalized communities struggle to access the funding or support needed to do those stories. This session brings together reporters, grantees, funders, and newsroom leaders committed to equity and reporting on BIPOC communities in investigative reporting. This also will address how to look for funding amid changes in government.

Speakers

Pam Dempsey, Knight Lab

Pam Dempsey is the program director of the Data-Driven Reporting Project based at Medill | Northwestern. She is also past executive director of Investigate Midwest, an online nonprofit newsroom focused on agriculture. Over the past 20 years, Dempsey has worked as an online, print and radio journalist, developed community engagement programs, investigative reporting workshops and co-coordinated the start-up of two online newsrooms that heavily emphasize data journalism. 

Eric Ferrera, Fund for Investigative Journalism

Eric Ferrero is the executive director of the Fund for Investigative Journalism, which provides grants and other support directly to journalists for specific investigative projects. Over the past 20 years, he has served in senior leadership roles at nonprofit and philanthropic organizations that support and partner closely with journalists to uncover groundbreaking stories, including the Open Society Foundations, Innocence Project and Amnesty International.

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Jane Sasseen, McGraw Center for Business Journalism at CUNY

Monica Williams, Independent journalist/RJI fellow

Monica Williams is a veteran journalist and longtime editor with experience at outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and Bridge Michigan. A graduate of the Data Institute, Williams is currently a professional fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and is developing a website focused on revenue for journalism.

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In communities where local newsrooms are shrinking and disappearing, college journalists are often the ones asking the toughest accountability questions. Join this information-packed session to discover best practices for well-informed campus reporting. This session will help student journalists (and their advisers) produce evidence-based, high-impact investigations on pressing topics like campus crime, immigration enforcement, sports stadium financing and student mental health.

Speakers

Clark Merrefield, The Journalist's Resource

Clark Merrefield is the senior editor for economics and legal systems at The Journalist's Resource. He joined JR in 2019 after working as a reporter for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, as a researcher and editor on three books related to the Great Recession, and as a federal government communications strategist. He has been selected for fellowships in juvenile justice and solitary confinement at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and his work has been awarded by IRE.

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Naseem Miller, The Journalist's Resource

Naseem Miller is the senior health editor at The Journalist’s Resource, a project of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard Kennedy School. In addition to covering health, she writes about the intersection of journalism and trauma. Naseem was part of the Orlando Sentinel team that was named a 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. Miller co-started and administers the Journalists Covering Trauma Facebook group.

Connect: LinkedIn

Carmen Nobel, The Journalist's Resource

Carmen Nobel is editor-in-chief and strategic director of The Journalist’s Resource at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She has worked as a journalist since the late 1990s.

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Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource at Harvard Kennedy School

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Description coming soon.

Speakers

Lygia Navarro, Independent Journalist

Cara Reedy, Disabled Journalists Association

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Reporters at The Marshall Project and The Appeal will walk the audience through strategies for investigating various prison conditions, including the circumstances leading to unnatural deaths.

Speakers

Ethan Corey, The Appeal

Ethan served as The Appeal's research and projects editor for four years, where he led and supported data- and records-driven stories on the criminal-legal system. In 2022, he filed a FOIA suit against the U.S. Department of Justice seeking the release of in-custody death records reported under the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act. Last year, a federal judge ordered the DOJ to release records on more than 50,000 deaths.

Connect: X, Bluesky, GitHub, LinkedIn

Anna Flagg, The Marshall Project

Brittany Hailer, The Marshall Project-Cleveland

Brittany Hailer is an award-winning investigative journalist and educator based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a staff writer with The Marshall Project-Cleveland. She is the former co-founder and director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and former Assistant Teaching Professor of Writing at the University of Pittsburgh.

Ilica Mahajan, The Marshall Project

Ilica Mahajan is a computational journalist at The Marshall Project. She builds tools, writes code, analyzes data and reports and writes stories to uncover the complexities of the criminal legal system.

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Indigenous newsrooms are covering what their tribes are doing to solve big problems. Indigenous journalists will showcase their work covering health equity or environment: how they got those stories, how they did them with rigor, and how they built trust and engagement in a community tired of being defined largely through its problems.

Speakers

Angela Evans, Solutions Journalism Network

Angela K. Evans is Director, Communities of Practice at the Solutions Journalism Network focused on supporting and connecting journalists around the world in rigorous, evidence-based reporting on responses to systemic problems. She leads a global network of climate journalists and programming designed to empower reporters to tell powerful solutions-focused stories about the environment. She's been a local reporter and editor since 2014.

Connect: LinkedIn

Allison Herrera, 2025-2026 JSK Journalism Fellow

Allison Herrera is a 2025 JSK Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She is the former Indigenous Affairs reporter for KOSU. In 2022, she worked on a podcast for Bloomberg and iHeart Media called "In Trust" about how Osage lands ended up outside Osage ownership. She is proud of her Salinan tribal heritage.

Chad Hunter, Cherokee Phoenix

Christine Trudeau, Underscore Native News

Christine Trudeau is Underscore Native News’ managing editor. She directs its journalism and oversees all editorial staff in alignment with Underscore’s mission to provide impactful reporting at the intersections of sovereignty and justice for Indigenous communities of the Pacific Northwest. She’s a former president of the Indigenous Journalists Association board of directors, previously the Native American Journalists Association.

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Journalists can learn about how to effectively tell stories about U.S. territories and why it's important.

Speakers

Andrea González-Ramírez, New York Magazine's The Cut

Andrea González-Ramírez is an award-winning journalist from Puerto Rico. She’s currently a senior writer at New York Magazine's The Cut, where she reports on gender, power and politics. Her work has also appeared in Cosmopolitan, Insider, GEN by Medium and Refinery29, among others. Andrea is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and the University of Puerto Rico.

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Anita Hofschneider, Grist Magazine

Thomas Mangloña II, Marianas Press

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The Department of Veterans Affairs, also known as the VA, oversees one of the largest health care systems in the US and administers benefits to millions of military veterans across the nation. Yet investigative reporting on the VA poses unique challenges as reporters must learn to both navigate the Department’s bureaucracy and understand complex policies governing the VA and its impact on veterans. In this panel, journalists experienced in Veterans Affairs coverage will discuss best practices for covering the VA and its impact effectively and ethically, as well as what reporters can expect in the current administration and beyond.

Speakers

Aaron Glantz, Stanford University, Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences

Aaron Glantz is a two-time Peabody Award winner, Pulitzer Prize finalist and fellow at Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He covers veterans and military issues for the Guardian.

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Daniel Johnson, Independent journalist/College professor

Daniel Johnson is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill's Journalism PhD program. He was a journalist for the U.S. Army in 2016 in Iraq, and has reported for The New York Times and The Washington Post. Work he contributed to on blast overpressure injuries was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in national reporting in 2024.

Patricia Kime, Independent journalist

Patricia Kime is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Military.com, Military Times, KFF Health News and elsewhere. She has covered military and veteran health care since 2011, reporting on combat-related illness and injuries and Pentagon and VA health policy. Kime has received awards for excellence from the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and elsewhere.

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Devon Lancia, Military Veterans in Journalism

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This panel will discuss free/low-cost data tools to use for reporting, training grants and courses and collaborative funding for data projects.

Speakers

Pam Dempsey, Knight Lab

Pam Dempsey is the program director of the Data-Driven Reporting Project based at Medill | Northwestern. She is also past executive director of Investigate Midwest, an online nonprofit newsroom focused on agriculture. Over the past 20 years, Dempsey has worked as an online, print and radio journalist, developed community engagement programs, investigative reporting workshops and co-coordinated the start-up of two online newsrooms that heavily emphasize data journalism. 

Eric Sagara, Big Local News

Monica Williams, Independent journalist/RJI fellow

Monica Williams is a veteran journalist and longtime editor with experience at outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and Bridge Michigan. A graduate of the Data Institute, Williams is currently a professional fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and is developing a website focused on revenue for journalism.

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Individuals and organizations are increasingly scrubbing their digital footprints, but journalists can often still track down what has been removed. This session will teach attendees how to uncover deleted records, scrubbed public data, and hidden connections using investigative techniques and open-source intelligence. Panelists will discuss tools and tricks to recover removed content from government databases, court records, and business filings, how to track changes on websites and archive critical information before it disappears, and how to investigate digital footprints. The session will also cover best practices for journalists to protect their own privacy while conducting sensitive investigations.

Speakers

Dillon Bergin, MuckRock

Dillon Bergin is MuckRock's data reporter. He uses data and public records to power investigative reporting with partner newsrooms. He's also the director of the Data Liberation Project and hosts FOIAFriday, a monthly community podcast about all things public records.

Connect: LinkedIn

Elizabeth Clemons, Sunlight Research Center

Elizabeth is an investigative researcher. She has conducted research on various topics, including gender-based violence in areas of conflict, data privacy in Colorado and Russian disinformation targeting American public health systems. She has worked for the Department of Defense, a U.S. Ambassador to Oman and Campaign for Accountability.

Connect: LinkedIn

Audrey Nielsen, Sunlight Research Center

Audrey Nielsen is a researcher and data specialist at Sunlight Research Center and an independent investigative reporter with a focus on accountability and public documents.

Connect: GitHub

Mike Nolan, Sunlight Research Center

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Join Diana Fuentes, executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors, for this session that explores the vast treasure trove of US public records available, even if you don't live in the country. Discover strategies for accessing information, from property records to court documents, regardless of your geographic location. Equip yourself with the knowledge to submit FOIA requests and enhance your research capabilities!

Speaker

Diana Fuentes, IRE & NICAR

As executive director of IRE, Diana R. Fuentes oversees the largest journalism organization in the U.S. with nearly 5,000 members. She has more than 35 years of award-winning journalism experience, from police reporter to publisher. A second-generation Texan fluent in Spanish, Fuentes has a bachelor's from University of Texas at Austin and a master's from Texas State. She has leadership roles in numerous professional organizations and teaches at Mizzou and Texas State.

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Sometimes the most important stories are hidden in plain sight. When traditional sources fall short, investigative journalists can turn to public procurement records and trade statistics to uncover answers. In this panel, we will showcase two investigations supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network (ORN): one, published in Mongabay, revealed how the Brazilian government purchased shark meat that ended up in public institutions; the other, published in ArmandoInfo, built a database to identify Venezuela’s true trade partners of marine species. Participants will gain practical insights into how to combine procurement data, customs records, and supply chain analysis to expose systemic problems and hopefully pave the way towards greater public and private accountability.

Speakers

Lisseth Boon, Armando.Info

Fernanda Buffa, Pulitzer Center

Fernanda Buffa (Fernanda Seavon) is a Brazilian journalist based in Lisbon, Portugal. She currently works as a research for the Pulitzer Center.

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Philip Jacobson, Mongabay

Philip Jacobson is a senior editor at the environmental news site Mongabay. He recently investigated the global shark trade as part of a Pulitzer Center fellowship on ocean journalism.

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Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, Pulitzer Center

Kuek Ser Kuang Keng is the data editor at the Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that supports independent journalists globally. He supports and mentors three fellowships investigating issues related to tropical rainforest, ocean and AI accountability. He has won several awards, including SOPA Awards, Data Journalism Award and Fetisov Awards for his work in data journalism and environmental investigations.

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Come to this session for a crash course in some of the issues to consider when meeting basic accessibility requirements for digital news. Panelists will discuss topics including color accessibility, alt text, mouseless navigation, and more.

Speakers

Samantha Evans, International Association of Accessibility Professionals

Patrick Garvin, Independent Journalist

Stacy Kess, Equal Access Public Media

Stacy Kess is the founder and chief of editorial for Equal Access Public Media, a national media organization dedicated to improving accessibility in journalism. Kess has been a reporter and editor for more than 25 years. She became involved in accessibility after recovering from physical injuries and working through aphasia after a head-on crash in 2017.

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An overview of the key analysis tools used to produce investigative stories, with examples of stories that were made possible with these tools.

Speakers

Keith Alexander, Bloomberg Law

Keith Alexander is an editor at large at Bloomberg Law, where he concentrates on legal and criminal justice stories. Prior to joining Bloomberg in August, Keith spent nearly 25 years as a reporter and columnist with The Washington Post, where he was part of the 2016 team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a national investigation on fatal police shootings.

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Liz Lucas, Missouri School of Journalism

Liz Lucas is the Houston Harte Chair in Journalism at the University of Missouri, where she teaches classes in data analysis and artificial intelligence. Previously she was a training director for IRE, a data editor for KFF Health News and a data reporter at the Center for Public Integrity.

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Una amplia introducción al uso de las leyes aplicables a documentos públicos a nivel federal y estatal, adaptada a su área de cobertura. / A comprehensive introduction to the use of laws applicable to public documents at the federal and state levels, tailored to your area of coverage.

Speaker

Diana Fuentes, IRE & NICAR

As executive director of IRE, Diana R. Fuentes oversees the largest journalism organization in the U.S. with nearly 5,000 members. She has more than 35 years of award-winning journalism experience, from police reporter to publisher. A second-generation Texan fluent in Spanish, Fuentes has a bachelor's from University of Texas at Austin and a master's from Texas State. She has leadership roles in numerous professional organizations and teaches at Mizzou and Texas State.

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This session will present tips for how to collaborate with journalism students, professionals, and civic organizations in putting on a FOI audit to hold government accountable in your state or local community.

Speakers

David Cuillier, Brechner FOI Project

David Cuillier is director of the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project, which provides research and education in access to government information. He is co-author of "The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records," has testified three times before Congress regarding FOIA, and has trained more than 15,000 people in gathering public records.

Robert Moritz, University of Central Arkansas

Rob was a reporter for more than 30 years, covering police, city and state government and politics in Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas before joining the joining the journalism program at the University of Central Arkansas a 11 years ago. He is treasurer of the Arkansas Pro chapter of SPJ and recently completed two terms as chairman of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Task Force.

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From vaccines to gender affirming care, just to name a few, issues of public health have dominated headlines and shaped our lives across the globe for years. And because public health is an issue that intersects with so many identities — like race, gender, disability, class, sexual orientation — journalists should know how to report on this topic with nuance, clarity, and expertise. Come to this session to learn about public health stories that you can take to any newsroom, and how to cover these issues in an increasingly politicized time.

Speakers

Julia Metraux, Mother Jones

Julia Métraux is Mother Jones' disability reporter, where she covers disability and chronic illness as it relates to politics.

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James Salanga, The Objective

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Why take time to argue with government records custodians when you can grab story-ripe data online for free? This session will run through 50 free datasets in 50 minutes – a twist on the 50 FOIA requests in 50 minutes. The classics, like dams, train wrecks, and bridge inspections, but also new ideas that the savvy data journalist may have missed. It will show where the datasets are located, what stories can be generated, and any caveats, with a handout providing all the relevant links to the data and IRE Resource Center tip sheets.

Speakers

David Cuillier, Brechner FOI Project

David Cuillier is director of the University of Florida Brechner Freedom of Information Project, which provides research and education in access to government information. He is co-author of "The Art of Access: Strategies for Acquiring Public Records," has testified three times before Congress regarding FOIA, and has trained more than 15,000 people in gathering public records.

Cam Rodriguez, New York Times

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Demonstrate the use of two new databases for police employment and misconduct data: the National Police Index, which documents police employment data throughout the U.S., and the Police Records Access Project, a new database of California police misconduct records. Each database was the result of collaboration between investigative journalists, technologists, attorneys, and community members. The panel will also discuss ways for attendees to utilize data from the NPI and techniques from the PRAP in their own states, including specific examples such as an in-progress statewide database project from the ACLU of West Virginia, the Louisiana Law Enforcement Accountability Database, and other relevant and related databases across the U.S.

Speakers

Maheen Khan, Invisible Institute

Maheen (she/her) is the director of technology at Invisible Institute. She primarily works to maintain the Civic Police Data Project and support with data reporting.

Lisa Pickoff-White, California Reporting Program, Berkeley's Investigative Reporting Program

Lisa Pickoff-White is the California Reporting Project’s director of research, based out of Berkeley Journalism's Investigative Reporting Program. She works with journalists, engineers, attorneys and academics to turn use-of-force and police misconduct records into data and impactful reporting. At KQED, she worked on award-winning investigations and built applications to meet daily audience needs.

Tarak Shah, Community Law Enforcement Accountability Network (CLEAN) and Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG)

Tarak is a data scientist working for human rights with a focus on leveraging community expertise and machine learning tools to shed light on patterns of under-documented violence.

Sam Stecklow, Invisible Institute

Sam Stecklow is an investigative journalist and FOIA fellow with Invisible Institute, a nonprofit public accountability journalism organization based in Chicago. He works on its data tools, including the National Police Index and Civic Police Data Project, as well as investigations into police accountability, use of force and responses to mental health crises.

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Kyle Vass, Dragline (ACLU-WV)

Kyle Vass is an investigative reporter for the ACLU of West Virginia and founder of Dragline, a news site focused on government accountability. Kyle covers open records, police accountability and state government. His work has appeared in The Guardian, NPR's Marketplace and PRX's The World.

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Emily Zentner, The California Reporting Project & The California Newsroom

Emily Zentner is a data journalist working with the California Reporting Project to connect journalists with their searchable database of police use of force and misconduct records, and to educate and train journalists on how to use this tool and on the ways AI can be used to harness large sets of records like these.

Connect: X, LinkedIn

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