Julia Ingram

I'm a data journalist and reporting fellow at PBS FRONTLINE. I graduated last year with a master's in data journalism at Columbia Journalism School and in 2021 with a bachelor's in English from Stanford University. Read some of my work below, and see other stories I've written for FRONTLINE in the past year here.

All

FRONTLINE and ProPublica
June 2023
SQL

Trapped Under Trucks

For this joint investigation with ProPublica, I worked on analyzing federal databases of vehicle crashes to help show the extent of underreporting of underride crashes. I also reverse-engineered a government cost-benefit analysis of mandating metal guards that could prevent these types of crashes to aid our teams reporting on federal inaction on safety regulation.
A car slides under a truck in an 'underride crash' in a failed test of a rear underride guard.
FRONTLINE
June 2023
Recharts, React, Python

Gun rights lobbying outpaces gun control lobbying in Texas

I learned a new charting library, Recharts, as well as the ins and outs of Texas lobbying law to better understand and accurately visualize gun lobbying spending in Texas after the Uvalde massacre.
Guns at a gun show
FRONTLINE and WFAE
April 2023
Python, SQL, Altair

Measuring the long wait times for inmates with mental illness North Carolina's jails to stand trial

I spent months helping to build a database on inmates in North Carolina jails deemed incapable of standing trial. I cleaned, standardized and vetted the data in Python, helped analyze in SQL and visualized in Altair.
A map showing median waits for treatment for inmates for North Carolina's three psychatric hospitals
MindSite News
July 2022
Python, machine learning

ADHD patients left hanging as startup Cerebral staggers

After analyzing App Store reviews to identify problems users of telehealth app Cerebral faced, I interviewed ADHD patients who were suddenly unable to get their medications after the company abruptly stopped prescribing controlled substances.
Teletherapy app Cerebral previously prescribed controlled substances virtually
Columbia Journalism School
August 2022
Web scraping, pandas, geopandas, geocoding API, QGIS

Areas in New York facing physician shortages lose independent pharmacies as financial pressures rise

Low drug reimbursement rates and high fees set by pharmacy benefit managers are threatening independent pharmacies in areas of New York State already facing primary care shortages. I collected data on pharmacy closures by scraping a state website and developed a reliable way of classifying the pharmacies as independent or not. I also geocoded the data and performed a spatial analysis to identify the rate of closures in areas federally designated to be facing a primary care shortage.
CVS Caremark, one of three pharmacy benefit managers that dominate the market, also owns the major pharmacy chain.
Columbia Journalism School
August 2022
Mapbox, scrollytelling, Google Earth studio, altair, Adobe Illustrator

Critical habitats in question

At least three endangered species were denied "critical habitat" status, which would've protected their natual habitats from human development, as a result of Trump-era policies. This visual story explains the policies and their impact.
An airport plan threatens an endangered bumblebee's habitat
Verywell Health
June 2022
Pandas, Datawrapper

Examining the relationship between abortion policies and maternal mortality

Published as the Dobbs decision came out, my analysis of CDC data for this story found statistically significant differences in average maternal mortality among states with and without certain abortion restrictions.
Chart displaying differences in maternal mortality among states with and without abortion restrictions.
The Washington Post
October 2021
Spreadsheets, SEC filings

Calculating oil CEOs' "climate bonuses"

CEOs of fossil fuel companies make millions for meeting climate targets despite continuing to cause environmental damage, a colleague and I found after looking through company filings. Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for an SEC investigation into the companies executive compensation after therapists story was published.
Climate bonuses
Columbia Journalism School
December 2021
Web scraping, Mapbox GL JS

Mapping primary care providers on Zocdoc

An interactive map showing disparities in access to care on the online platform Zocdoc in New York City. The map displays data I scraped from Zocdoc's website.
Zocdoc map
The Washington Post
August 2021
Python, spreadsheets

Mortgage delinquency data

Over 2 million homeowners were in debt ahead of the national foreclosure moratorium's expiration. Low-income borrowers and borrowers of color were most impacted.
Mortgage delinquency
Columbia Journalism School
March 2022
Web scraping, plotnine, QGIS, Adobe Illustrator, ai2html

Push for year-round daylight saving time moves forward

A look at state bills to end biannual clock-switching, and a map of when sunrise and sunset might happen if the U.S. moved to year-round daylight time.
Sunrise map on daylight time
Columbia Journalism School
April 2022
Scrollytelling, plotnine, D3, Illustrator, ai2html, Python

Quantifying historic sites at risk of facing climate disasters

Nearly a fifth of sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places lie in the path of potential climate disasters, according to an analysis of datasets published by FEMA and the National Register.
Big Basin Redwood State Park's Administrative Headquarters, destroyed by the CZU Lighting Complex fire in 2020.
Columbia Journalism School
April 2022
Scrollytelling, QGIS, D3, Illustrator, ai2html, PDF data extraction, Python

Visualizing utility-caused fires in California

The state auditor found inadequate oversight of California's electrical utilities, publishing findings in a 91-page report. I analyzed their source data and created an interactive visualization to display how utilities have caused thousands of fires.
California utility-caused fires
Columbia Journalism School
February 2022
Scraping, Machine Learning, HTML, CSS

Analyzing therapy app reviews

I built a machine learning classifer to analyze app store reviews and find that hundreds of users of the apps TalkSpace and Cerebral feel unfairly charged or deal with unresponsive therapists.
Therapy apps
NBC News
July 2020
Public records requests, spreadsheets

Quantifying child abuse and neglect reporting

I requested data from all states and obtained it from 43, showing that reports of child abuse around the nation have plunged during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.
Child abuse underreporting
Verywell Health
February 2022
Python, Datawrapper

Visualizing Omicron's peak

I worked with CDC data to show the Omicron COVID wave peaked around the same time as the 2021 winter wave.
Child abuse underreporting
Columbia Journalism School
February 2022
Python, plotnine/ggplot, Tableau

Analyzing patterns in Citi Bike ridership

Citi Bike ridership exploded in 2021, and fewer people are using it to commute in the morning, my analysis of released by the company showed. I also built an animated map of the most popular stations throughout the day.
Citi Bike Ridership
The Stanford Daily
August 2018
Public records

Stanford placed students with mental illness on involuntary leaves of absence

Stanford University placed students who experienced suicidal ideation or attempted suicide on a forced leave of absence, a move that some students said actually worsened their mental health.
Vaden Health Center at Stanford
Miami Herald
August 2019
On the ground reporting, photo/video

Lack of responsibility for cleanup leaves abandoned boats in the Miami River

Derelict boats littered the Miami River. I followed a growing movement as neighboring residents took it to city council.
Abandoned boats in the Miami River
The Stanford Daily
February 2019
Public records

Record hospitalizations for drinking at Stanford

Stanford shifts much of the responsibility of regulating drinking on campus to student RAs. Records showed that in 2018, more students were hospitalizied for alcohol poisoning than had been in 12 years.
Graphic of underage transports for drinking
Miami Herald
August 2019
Explanatory reporting

The politics of regulating single-use plastic in Miami

In Florida, a state pre-emption prevents local municipalities from regulating plastics, leaving big business to force small towns to roll back their plastic bans.
Plastics floating in the ocean
Columbia News Service
October 2021
On the ground reporting, photo/video

Delivery workers' use of e-bikes sparks tension on the Upper West Side

On New York City's Upper West Side, residents argue e-bikes are a danger to pedestrians. But delivery workers rely on them to make a living wage.
A delivery cyclist and his e-bike
Columbia News Service
December 2021
Datawrapper

Vaccine mandate adds staffing pressure to daycares

Industry employment was creeping toward pre-pandemic levels. But in small centers, the absence of even one teacher is acutely felt.
Graphic displaying trends in childcare employment in NYC
The Stanford Daily
May 2021
Public records

Fraternity deflects blame to University after student death

Stanford disbanded the TDX fraternity after a student died of an accidental overdose in its on-campus house. More than a year later, the organization pushed for its reinstatement, claiming Stanford failed to intervene in a second drug incident two days before the student's death.
TDX fraternity at Stanford