Skills + experience

For a copy of my full resume or skills, please email me at LysikTory@gmail.com

Awards, Recognitions and Appearances

Information is Beautiful, Data Visualization Society

  • 2023 Longlist: No Passport, No Problem— Axios

Colorado Press Association

  • 2023: Best infographics, best newsletter — Axios
  • 2022: Best editorial collaboration- The Central 70 Project: Digging into troubled ground — Denver Gazette

Speaking Engagements

Skills

  • Languages
    • R (ggplot2, Shiny, Stringr, RSQLite, tidyverse, R markdown, ggmaps, jsonlite)
    • Python (Pandas, Dagster, NumPy, Jupyter, MatPlotlib, PyTorch, Requests, Beautiful Soup, Scrapy, SciPy, pdfminer, PyMuPDF, Tabula-py, Plotly, Seaborn, Apache, PyQGIS, GDAL)
    • Adobe (Illustrator, Indesign, Lightroom, Photoshop, Creative Cloud, Premiere Pro, Audition)
    • Svelte
    • D3.js
    • QGIS
    • ArcGIS
    • SQL 
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • JavaScript
    • Git
    • Playwright
    • spaCy
    • Node
  • Tools
    • DataWrapper, Flourish, data and web scraping, Observable Notebooks, Airtable, Tableau, Observable Notebooks  HTML, CSS, TheHarvester
  • Development
    •  Web Scraping, CMS management, Git, TheHarvester, machine learning, natural language processing, APIs
  • Other
    • Investigative reporting, multimedia storytelling, narrative writing, public records requests, LexisNexis, Google Dorking, metadata and satellite imagery analysis, Spanish (inter.), Thai (inter.), FOIA/FOIL requesting, OSINT/GEOINT, Shodan, BuiltWith, Intelligence X, Spyse, Spiderfoot, Maltego

Experience

Data Journalist, Data Visualizations | Axios | August 2022-August 2024 (layoff)

  • Researched, wrote and produced data-driven stories like a series on deadly chemical facilities or tracking college university political events
  • Edited data-driven content and visuals with an emphasis on accessibility, data ethics and information quality
  • Created and fact checked social-friendly data and graphic content for social media

Reporter, Politics and Policy | Vox | June 2022-August 2022

  • Covered breaking news and reported in-depth, follow-up explainers on topics like the 2022 Sri Lankan political crisis, the IRA, and hostages in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
  • Used front-end development to update and maintain website

Associated Editor | DC Witness | May 2021-June 2022

  • Reported four enterprise stories a month Washington, DC government accountability and criminal justice
  • Recruited, hired managed a team of 15 interns and lead a comprehensive data journalism training program resulting in 82% of graduating students accepting full-time positions within three months
  • Gathered, fact-checked and maintained comprehensive databases on thousands of local criminal cases and lawsuits using AirTable, Tableau and Observable in both English and Spanish
  • Edited and fact checked 10 stories a week with a focus on AP style for publication
  • Part of a year-long Poynter Local Journalism fellowship that placed reporters in localized, high-need newsrooms

Managing Editor  and various other roles | CU Independent | January 2018-May 2021

  • Managing Editor: Managed five sections that included ten editors and 50 reporters. In charge of editing, advising and publishing a minimum of 10 stories a day, approving pitches and workshopped investigative news stories. Advised in the transition from in person to remote work in March 2020 and the transition back in person. Met with University administration and Colorado Media leadership regularly to discuss funding and freedom of speech on University of Colorado campuses and the greater Boulder area
  • Government Reporter: Reported on legislative meetings and met regularly with government officials when the student government overlapped with local or federal issues. Collaborated with local outlets such as the Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera.
  • Reported investigative stories such as when a group of local legislators violated multiple federal laws but did not receive penalties
  • Senior News Editor- Managed two news editors and 10 reporters. Reported multiple award-winning stories such as University President Mark Kennedy’s rise and fall in power, Black Lives Matter protests and sexual assault investigations hidden by the university
  • As Breaking News Editor- Reported daily and long form stories on local topics such as how local populations created community during the pandemic and climate change’s effects on Colorado

Reporting Intern | Boulder Daily Camera | April 2020-August 2020

  • Reported daily and long form stories on local topics such as how local populations created community during the pandemic and climate change’s effects on Colorado
  • Special reporting focus on climate change and the mountaineering industry

Education

Masters of Science, Journalism | Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Part time program | Expected: Early 2025

Relevant coursework: Feature Writing, Journalism Entrepreneurship and Business (Honors), Advanced Reporting, Journalism

Certification of Professional Achievement | Columbia University Lede Program | August 2022

Relevant coursework: CLI Graphics, Finding and Using Undocumented APIs, Interactives and Animation, Browser Automation, Advanced Web Scraping, Figma, Advanced Data Reshaping/Cleaning, Data Storytelling, Reporting Stories using Satellite Imagery

BA Political Science, BA Journalism, International Media Certificate |University of Colorado Boulder | May 2021

Relevant coursework: US Campaigns and Elections, Political Parties and Interest Groups, War/Peace/Strategic Defense, International Political Economy, Quantitative Research Methods, Gender and Politics in Latin America, Political Science Data Analysis, Free Speech and Dangerous Ideas, Politics of Economic Inequality in the US, Media Coverage of Diverse Populations, Reporting Wars/Conflict/Peace


    Trainings and Workshops

    NICAR 2024, 2023 | Investigative Reporters and Editors

    Sessions attended: Text analysis in different languages for investigative journalism, Finding the story in criminal justice data, Extracting data using command-line and other tools, Cooking with generative AI, Parsing federal campaign finance data with FastFEC, Crisis reporting with remotely sensed data, Spatial analysis in R, Reconsidering data on mass shootings, Finding needles in haystacks with fuzzy matching,Visual investigations, Find public records and leaks: OCCRP Aleph, Layer Cake: How to build reusable/customizable graphics with D3 and Svelte, Using CAPTCHA-solving services to automate CAPTCHA solutions in web scraping, Elevate your graphics with Illustrator and Inkscape, file better FOIAs and much more with the MuckRock portfolio, The new OSINT investigative wave

    Professional Certificate in Computer Science for Artificial Intelligence | Harvard University

    August 2024

    Associated Organizations

    • Investigative Reporters and Editors
    • Data Visualization Society
    • Online News Association
    • National Press Club
    • Society of Professional Journalists
    • Arab & Middle Eastern Journalists Association
    • Disabled Journalists Association
      • 2023-2024 Columbia University Chapter President