Sahana Jayaraman

Here are the work samples I'm most proud of.

The Arizona Republic

• At an Arizona senior living center, a resident killed another. How the system enables violence

  I analyzed more than 20 million rows of medicare data, uncovering key findings about staffing at nursing homes across the nation for this series. I built and deployed a first-of-its-kind beskpoke database of incidents of resident-on-resident harm, interviewed sources, and collaborated with a team of reporters, designers and artists to bring this project to life. To read more about my role in this project, clicke here.

The Washington Post

• More than 840 suspects have been charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot

  I collected, analyzed and fact-checked the data presented in this piece, which works to visually summarize where the federal government's Jan. 6 investigation stands more than a year after the Capitol riot. I wrote and edited the grafs that overlay and sit between the visual elements.

• Desperate, angry, destructive: How Americans morphed into a mob

  My analysis of suspects and charging data related to the January 6th Capitol Riot returned the key findings that drove this Pulitzer-prize winning story. My work revealed that the majority of people charged with assault didn't seem to be affiliated with far-right extremist groups.

• Schools got $122 billion to reopen last year. Most has not been used.

  I cleaned, combined and used R to analyze education finance data from more than 40 states, returning the findings that formed the backbone of this story, represented in its headline.

• D.C. traffic deaths at 14-year high with low-income areas hardest hit

  I collected, cleaned, joined and analyzed traffic fatalities data from multiple agencies. Using that data, I created choropleth maps and ran spatial joins in R to generate and visualize the findings that drove this story — findings that told us lower-income communities bore the geographic brunt of the deaths, and that most of the victims were Black. I spent time talking to residents of some of the most heavily impacted neighborhoods about their experiences, grounding the piece in their stories.

• Buffalo’s East Side was a food desert. The shooting made things worse.

  I fact-checked and analyzed grocery store and pharmacy records for this story, generating the data underlying the map and finding that Buffalo's majority-White areas have 22 percent more pharmacies than its majority-Black areas.

• Judges have declined U.S.-proposed sentences in two-thirds of Jan. 6 cases so far

  I wrote functions in R to pull the count of any given charge minus those dismissed by guilty pleas, contributing to this story.

The Diamondback

• “It’s like a family”: How College Park’s weekly 5K has brought the community together

  I pitched, reported and wrote this story on the rich community surrounding the College Park parkrun, a weekly 5k in the city surrounding my university. This is my favorite piece I've ever written.

• Student housing affordability in College Park isn’t likely to improve soon, officials say

  Even before I learned how to code, I was writing data-driven stories. I pitched, wrote and did the data analysis for this story on the exorbitant housing prices around campus — and why they're unlikely to go down.

• A new preschool is set to open in College Park next year

  I pitched and wrote this story on a new preschool opening in College Park, an area long notorious for its scant childcare and early education options.

• “A lot of possibilities”: UMD students modify Halloween celebrations as COVID-19 spreads

  Ipitched and wrote this story about how students modified their Halloween celebrations as the pandemic raged around them in fall 2020

• Amid pushback from residents, College Park pauses plan to add turf to Duvall Field

  I pitched, wrote and interviewed several sources in the span of a day for this story on a controversial plan for renovating a College Park community field.

Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

• Walmart sales soared, essential workers got scant protection

  I did the data analysis that led to key findings in this story about how U.S. oversight of worker safety during the pandemic splintered between agencies, leaving workers vulnerable. The project, collaboratively produced by the Howard Center, was published in AP and other outlets. To read the full version, click here. To see my code, click here .