I tell stories with data
Elliott Ramos is an investigative data journalist for CBS Chicago, responsible for the station’s data-driven investigations, specializing in data visualizations, maps, and obtaining and analyzing large government databases via FOIA requests.
He was previously a data journalist for NBC News, covering a range of topics from energy, public transit, policing, and the pandemic – analyzing CDC data,reporting on vaccinations, hospitalizations and virus hotspots. He was previously the data editor for WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station.
A lot of his work was been part of a collaboration with ProPublica Illinois, where we examined the disparate impacts of Chicago's ticketing and debt-collection practices. The work spurred numerous legislative reforms and triggered several class-action lawsuits. He has also done investigations into the city's towing practices, the "stop-and-frisk" program used by the Chicago Police Department known as contact cards.
Elliott previously taught data journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Columbia College Chicago. He is FOIA booster, Open Data advocate and practitioner, a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters & Editors), and a contributor to the book Beyond Transparency: Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation. Elliott's work was featured in Best Infographics of 2016. He’s also won local and national awards for investigative reporting and data journalism. Those include: Peter Lisagor Awards for investigative reporting and data journalism, The Society of Professional Journalists' 2018 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Investigative Reporting, NABJ's Salute to Excellence finalist, and most recently a regional Murrow Award for Excellence in Innovation for his investigation of the city's impound program. He also received the Dawn Clark Netsch “Straight Talk” Award by Reform for Illinois and special recognition for investigative reporting by the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation.
Prior to WBEZ, Elliott was one of the first mobile editors for the Wall Street Journal. In that role, he helped facilitate new workflows and designs, and analyzed user data to improve the user experience on the WSJ iPad and iPhone apps. Before that, he was a digital editor for the paper's News Hub, which included managing breaking news, push alerts, and the editing and production of digital stories.
He was a senior Web editor for the New York Daily News, and interned at the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago RedEye and WBBM CBS2. Elliott holds a certification for data journalism from the LEDE program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a BA in journalism from Columbia College Chicago.
Elliott is a Chicago native and lives in the Uptown neighborhood with his partner Drew and calico cat Boomer (named after a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica). He can easily (and eagerly) discuss the political and philosophical themes in Star Trek. 🖖
On the Chicago Newsroom
On the Morning Shift
