Hi! I'm Tejal.

she/her

I'm a product manager at The Baltimore Banner and a graduate of the Lede Program at Columbia, focusing on data & graphics journalism.

My work at The Banner earned us the MDDC General Website Excellence Award in 2023. I presented our voter guide for the 2024 Maryland Primary at NICAR, and I am a part of the South Asian Journalists Association and Investigative Reporters & Editors.

Before I got into journalism, I built platforms to streamline trading at Goldman Sachs, where I ranked as a finalist in their 2020 COVID-19 Visualization Datathon. However, I found my interest shifting towards using data to empower impactful storytelling. My work now focuses on the intersection of journalism, design, and technology, which involves reporting data stories, creating interactive graphics and building visual products that shape reader perception.

As a student, I researched news visualization and got involved in community-centered design at MIT (here's an interview on my experience). I hold an undergraduate degree in computer science from BITS Pilani, where I served as Editor for our university magazine.

I owe my winding career path to folks in the industry who were kind enough to answer my (naïve) questions when I needed them the most, and I'm always happy to pass it along. Please get in touch! When I'm not coding up random stuff, I: