Sarah L. Ryley, Investigative & Data Journalist

Professional Experience

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics and Business Journalism | New York, August 2024 - Present

One of 10 journalists selected for this rigorous mid-career fellowship. Taking graded MBA courses in business, finance, statistics, and AI at the Business School and attending weekly seminars with business and journalism leaders. Researching a framework for a data lake to investigate supply chain abuses, which won second place in the Startup Columbia Venture Challenge.

Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, adjunct assistant professor | New York, December 2020 - Present

Advise M.S. in Data Journalism graduate students on their thesis projects.

The Boston Globe, investigative & data journalist, Boston, Jan. 2021 - June 2024

Produced data-driven investigations and enterprise stories.

Series on loopholes in state gun laws had a sweeping impact and prompted ATF inspections of 80+ gun dealers. Series on conflicts of interest at Harvard-affiliated hospitals triggered policy changes and was a finalist for a national award.
Filed 200+ public records requests; won 42 out of 46 state appeals.
Won a company-wide hackathon with newsroom data hub pitch and ran a data journalism skills brown bag attended by 50+ staffers.

Freelance, journalist & data editor, New York, Feb. 2020 - Dec. 2020

Full-time contracts as a data editor for The Fuller Project and as a reporter for New York Times Opinion video and worked on a book proposal.

Produced months of deep reporting on U.S. pandemic preparedness that was spun into several Times Opinion mini-docs, including one featuring Nicholas Kristof that was an Emmy finalist.
Led The Fuller Project’s efforts to compile data on the pandemic’s impact on women and hosted webinars to explain the data to outside journalists. Through records requests to every state, was first to quantify women’s disproportionate share of layoffs in a story picked up by wire services.

The Trace, investigative & data journalist, New York, April 2017 - Feb. 2020

Produced data-driven investigations on law enforcement response to shootings.

Series with BuzzFeed News and Chicago’s WTTW on unsolved shootings helped free a man from prison, prompted agencies to put more detectives on shootings, and won three awards and honors.
Led efforts to obtain data and database documentation from 60+ law enforcement agencies. Secured pro bono legal representation from Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other attorneys to win public records lawsuits against the NYPD, LASD, and Newark Police.
Published standardized and raw violent crime data from 56 agencies since used by scores of journalists, researchers, and policymakers.

New York Daily News, data projects editor, New York, Oct. 2012 - April 2017

Started as Metro editor managing seven reporters, then launched a data projects team managing three data journalists/developers. Ran Metro on Sundays. Oversaw the inclusion of data and data visualizations in stories on all desks, produced my own data-driven investigations, and ran Metro on Sundays.

Recognized with 22 awards and honors for work done here, including the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a solo-bylined series done with ProPublica and as a distinguished alumna of my alma mater.
Investigations into the NYPD’s abuse of “broken windows” policing triggered at least 18 laws and other reforms that reduced police interactions by hundreds of thousands per year.
Trained dozens of reporters and editors on data tools and launched a newsroom data hub, increasing data utilization on all desks.
Secured partnerships with ProPublica, The Trace, CartoDB, and Tableau.

The New School | New York, January 2016 – May 2016

Taught a semester-long investigative reporting lab class that laid the groundwork for WNYC’s “Judge Your Judges” project, a tool to inform voters about the judicial selection process and candidates. Four students produced research and reporting for the project and presented proposals for an animation and an app.

The Daily, investigative journalist, New York, Nov. 2010 - Oct. 2012

Produced quick-turn investigations on everything from tax shelters to celebrity cults and covered high-profile criminal trials. Series on immigration visa fraud relied on dozens of federal sources and became part of a congressional hearing and IG investigation. Other stories contributed to the indictment of a corrupt small-town mayor, uncovered the return of second mortgages through government-backed financing, and tied key figures in the Penn State child molestation scandal to a troubled real estate venture.

Freelance, journalist, New York, March 2008 - Nov. 2010

Wrote for various publications, primarily as a regular contributor of trend and quick-hit investigative stories to The Real Deal, a well-known real estate trade magazine, and New York Post. First-ever analysis of 100 years of booms and busts in Manhattan real estate won a national award. Other stories prompted a city sting on illegal hotels and a federal inquiry into a one-stop scheme.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, journalist & editor, New York, Sept. 2006 - March 2008

Wrote daily and enterprise stories and a weekly real estate column; edited and laid out the weekly Brooklyn Record. Routinely broke stories that had impact on the highly competitive real estate development beat. Stories helped save an Underground Railroad home from eminent domain and hastened the construction timetable for Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Speaking Engagements

Guest Lectures: Columbia Graduate School of Journalism (2025, 2021x2, 2020x2, 2019, 2018x2, 2017x2), CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (2025), Wellesley College (2024), Wayne State University (2018), New York University (2017), Hunter College (2017x2)

Professional Workshops & Panels: National Institute of Computer Assisted Reporting conference (2025x2, 2019x3, 2018x2, 2017x3, 2016, 2015x2), Investigative Reporters and Editors conferences and watchdog workshops (2024, 2017, 2016), Boston Globe (2023), New England First Amendment Institute conference (2023), CUNY J+ bootcamp (2017), New York Daily News (2014x2)

Other Engagements: Brown Institute, Columbia University (2023), The Policing Project, New York University (2019), 67th Precinct Clergy Council, NYC (2018), United Nations (2017), Public Policy Institute, Hunter College (2017), Justice and Poverty Project, Harvard (2016), Bridging the Divide, John Jay College (2016)

Awards & Honors

2025 - Startup Columbia Venture Competition, Second Place, for data lake on supply chains

2023 - Boston Globe Media Partners, Hack Day, Judge’s Choice and People’s Choice, “Newsroom Data Hub”

2022 - National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, Finalist, "Boston’s Elite Hospitals: Personal Enrichment and Profits”

2021 - Emmy Awards, News Analysis: Editorial and Opinion, nominee, "How the U.S. Bungled the Plague”

2020 - Deadline Club, The Les Payne Award for Coverage on Communities of Color, "Free to Shoot Again"

2019 - Online News Association, Innovation in Data Journalism, finalist, "Free to Shoot Again"; Sidney Award, February, "Free to Shoot Again"

2018 - Wayne State University, Career Achievement Award in the Field of Communication

2017 - Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, "Nuisance Abatement"; James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, "Nuisance Abatement"; Investigative Reporters and Editors, Print/Online - Large, finalist, "Nuisance Abatement"; National Association of Black Journalists, Online Project, finalist, "Nuisance Abatement"; MOLLY National Journalism Prize, honorable mention, "Nuisance Abatement"; Deadline Club, Minority Focus Omnibus Award, finalist, "Nuisance Abatement"; Deadline Club, Local Reporting, finalist, "Nuisance Abatement"

2016 - Online News Association, Knight Award for Public Service, finalist, "Nuisance Abatement"; Sidney Award, May, "The NYPD is running stings against immigrant-owned shops, then pushing for warrantless searches"; Newswomen’s Club of New York, Depth Reporting - Online, "Nuisance Abatement"; Journalists Association of New York, Depth Reporting, first prize, "Fight for their Future"

2015 - Deadline Club, Minority Focus Omnibus Award, "Broken Windows"; Fast Company Innovation by Design, Data Visualization (finalist); Journalists Association of New York, Depth Reporting, first prize, "Broken Windows"; Journalists Association of New York, Continuing Coverage, first prize (as part of "Eric Garner" coverage); Journalists Association of New York, Depth Reporting, second prize, "They died at the hands of cops"

2014 - Newswomen’s Club of New York, Nellie Bly Front Page Award, "Beyond Broken"; Newswomen’s Club of New York, Multimedia Package, "The Homicide Project"; Journalists Association of New York, Online presentation, first prize, "Stop-and-Frisk"; Journalists Association of New York, Depth Reporting, first prize, "Stain on the Badge"

2012 - Center for Immigration Studies, Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration, “Rubber Stamp Visas.”

2011 - National Association of Real Estate Editors, Commercial Real Estate - Trade Publication, first prize, "100 Years of Booms and Busts"

Education

Wayne State University, B.A. in Journalism and Distinguished Alumna, Detroit

Interned at The Oakland Press (2005), The Detroit News (2005), and Brooklyn Daily Eagle (2006); offered staff jobs at The News and Eagle. Editor-in-chief, managing editor, and opinions editor of student daily. Recipient of George and Mabel Slocum Foundation Scholarship. Named distinguished alumna in 2018.

Fellowships & Certificates:

2023 - Web Scraping with Python, IRE, remote, four-day course

2020 - The Boston Globe and Participant Media, Spotlight Fellowship

2017 - Data Analysis with R, Boston University, Boston, five-day course

2017 - H.F. Guggenheim Foundation, fellowship to attend John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s annual Symposium on Crime in America

2012 - Microsoft Access, Technical Institute of America, New York, two-day course

Skills & Expertise

Reporting and editing investigations, enterprise, and daily news
Academic teaching, public speaking, and hands-on training
Public records requests and appeals
Research tools such as LexisNexis, Accurint, Westlaw, CLIO, PACER, EDGAR, OpenCorporates, LinkedIn, government open data and records platforms, Google Advanced Search
Advanced skill level with data tools such as R (primary tool for data cleaning, analysis, mapping, and graphics), Microsoft Excel, Tableau, CartoDB, and APIs; working skill level in Python, SQL, HTML, and CSS

Other Activities

Ceramic pottery and sculpting, student and studio member, Art Students League of New York and BKLYN CLAY in New York; Create in Boston
PADI-certified scuba diver, with dives in Zanzibar, Colombia, Belize, Cuba, and The Bahamas
Trekking, with multi-day treks in Kashmir, Colombia, Belize, Myanmar, Chile, Japan, and the United States
CHiPS Soup Kitchen, waitress & kitchen worker, New York
Unified for Global Healing, volunteer on two-week trip to Haiti to assist this medical relief team in promoting mirror-feedback therapy for amputees on Haitian radio and in U.S. outlets (2010)