Hi! I'm Tejal. (she/her)

what I do

I'm a data and newsroom product manager at The Baltimore Banner and a graduate of the Lede Program at Columbia University, focusing on data and graphics journalism. My work at The Banner earned us the Local Media Association Award for Best Local News Website in 2024 and the MDDC Award for General Website Excellence in 2024 and 2023. My team also supports the data pipeline for our Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series on Baltimore's overdose crisis with The New York Times.

Most recently, I served on the judging panel for the 2024 IRE Awards and presented The Banner's voter guide for the Maryland primary elections at NICAR.

I'm always open to feedback or collaboration! I owe my winding career to folks in the industry who were kind enough to answer my (naïve) questions when I needed them most, and I'm happy to pass it along. Please get in touch.

how I do it

I use a cross-functional approach to journalism by:
👾 reporting data stories
👾 creating visuals and interactives
👾 building newsroom products

how I got here

I researched news visualization and got involved in design for social impact at MIT (here's an interview on my experience). I majored in computer science at BITS Pilani in India, where I served as Editor for the university's magazine.

Before I got into data journalism, I built trading platforms at Goldman Sachs, where I was a finalist in their 2020 COVID-19 Visualization Datathon. However, I found my interest shifting towards using data to empower impactful storytelling—at the intersection of journalism, design, and technology.

When I'm not building random stuff, I: