Aaron Kessler is an award-winning journalist, teacher and project leader specializing in investigative reporting and data analysis at the intersection of business and politics.
He has more than 15 years of experience as a data journalist, investigative reporter and newsroom innovator covering a range of complex government and business subjects including health care, finance, technology, transportation, housing, education and politics.
Aaron doubles as both a seasoned shoe-leather reporter and writer, as well as an industry-leading data practitioner and coder. He uses those combined skills to discover stories, uncover new knowledge and share the truth behind critical issues of public importance.
He’s especially a fan of R, though uses a wide range of data tools and programming strategies, and loves conceptualizing and building data-driven interactive experiences for news audiences.
Additionally, he’s led projects and initiatives to develop more innovative journalism workflows and to create tools aimed at harnessing the power of code within the newsroom.
Aaron’s a Certified Scrum Master who believes self-organized, empowered teams can fuel innovation not just in technology-driven settings but also for news reporting projects. He completed the elite Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Business & Economics Journalism, a one year program of full-time MBA coursework at Columbia Business School for rigorous training in finance, management and leadership.
He also teaches data journalism at The George Washington University, and is a longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors for which he frequently speaks and leads training sessions. Aaron is also an active member of the National Press Club, OpenNews, the Project Management Institute, Scrum Alliance and Society for Advancing Business Editors & Writers.
M.S. in Business & Economics Journalism
Columbia Business School/Columbia School of Journalism
M.A. in Journalism
University of Missouri
B.A. in Drama
Washington University in St. Louis
Key Northeastern cities saw significant drops in their Black populations even as the U.S. becomes more diverse
A year after Covid-19 came to the U.S., the clearest picture yet is emerging about how people moved around the nation
An analysis immediately after the biker rally determined the crowd’s origins and communities to which attendees would return
Following the initial story, examined how communities with Sturgis attendees fared a month after the super-spreader event
Investigation into how an extremely expensive drug designed for infant seizures was dubiously marketed to the elderly
Investigation found doctors receiving more perks from opioid makers wrote more prescriptions for the drugs
Analysis of Broward County precinct-level voting patterns that found unusual number of skipped votes for Senate
Investigative project detailing how droughts are a key push factor in migrants from Honduras heading for the United States
Analysis of FEC data to explore contributions to political party committees by donors’ zip code
Analysis of 2018 midterm results and demographic data shows the key factors in how Democrats won the U.S. House
Interactive data-driven project that aims to demystify Trump’s disclosed assets by connecting his interlocking companies
Have House Democrats lurched left? Not those from swing seats
As Volkswagen Pushed to Be No. 1, Ambitions Fueled a Scandal
One of numerous stories involving defctive guardrails that can fail on impact, and the regulatory failure to deal with it
One of numerous stories involving the defective guardrails, this scoop involved a criminal case into the relationship between the …
Conducted analysis for investigation that revealed how doctors criss-cross the Canada-U.S. border while a broken system keeps secret …
Analyzed Facebook ads to find how Russian trolls targeted Mexican-Americans after Trump election
Investigation into how Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke kept secret meetings off his public calendar
Analysis identifying to which 2020 Democrats the elite Obama donors have contributed
How a drugmaker is set to profit from an opioid it said was unsafe
Conducted textual/NLP analysis of tens of thousands of documents to identify instances of the EPA administrator’s secret meetings
Investigation into the stunning lack of transparency around federal judges’ misconduct
Investigation into the mental health toll on young people in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria
Analysis of how Trump’s judicial picks lack decades-long diversity drive
Analysis of the nefarious @TEN_GOP Twitter account from Mueller’s Russia indictment
Investigation into significant problems at the Cinncinati VA hospital, including senior leader prescribing opioids without a license
Investigation into Cinncinati VA hospital found dirty and unsterile surgical instruments arriving in operating rooms
Why Republicans and Democrats aren’t talking to each other in Washington
What Twitter’s massive data dump reveals about Russian trolls
How Stacey Abrams’ upended conventional political wisdom in Georgia, including winning a county once notoriously known for being …
More than 800,000 students live in school districts where shootings have happened
Automakers were still sorting out which cars needed to be included in the expanded recall, leaving many consumers bewildered
Semi-autonomous technology has sprinted ahead so fast that lawmakers and regulators are scrambling to catch up
Trump’s plan to deport criminals won’t be easy. Just ask Obama
The push to impose criminal penalties on auto executives who fail to disclose deadly automobile defects hit another roadblock
Even as Takata continued to resist demands to recall its airbags nationwide, Honda said it would take that action on its own
Six years after the government saved Wall Street from the brink of collapse, the lawsuit came to trial, reopening one of the ugliest …
There were moments during the AIG trial when Geithner, the former Treasury secretary, may have thought he was still on his book tour
The Web-connected car is cool, until hackers cut your brakes
Story examining the EPA’s proposed regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty trucks
Two of the world’s tech giants are battling to develop the next generation of phone-connected dashboard features
Stories from year two of a two-year investigation into contaminated Chinese-made drywall used in thousands of homes
Stories from year one of a two-year investigation into contaminated Chinese-made drywall used in thousands of homes
Honors/Awards and Certifications