Elliott Ramos
Elliott Ramos is a Senior Investigative Data Journalist for the CBS News Data Team, based in Chicago. He specializes in data-driven investigations — obtaining and analyzing large government databases through FOIA requests, building data visualizations, and creating maps that make complex information accessible and accountable. Read more →
Elliott Ramos
Elliott Ramos is a Senior Investigative Data Journalist for the CBS News Data Team, based in Chicago. He specializes in data-driven investigations — obtaining and analyzing large government databases through FOIA requests, building data visualizations, and creating maps that make complex information accessible and accountable.
A lot of Elliott's recent work has focused on analyzing the Epstein Files. In that capacity, he archived the files from the Department of Justice and managed them in a database for staff use. His analysis helped reveal that the DOJ was removing tens of thousands of files from their website. (Read the investigation)
Previously, Elliott served as a data journalist for NBC News, covering energy, public transit, policing, and the pandemic — analyzing CDC data, reporting on vaccinations, hospitalizations, and virus hotspots across the country. Before that, he was the Data Editor at WBEZ, Chicago's NPR station, where much of his work was part of a collaboration with ProPublica Illinois examining the disparate impacts of Chicago's ticketing and debt-collection practices. While there, he was the first to reveal the disparate impacts Covid-19 was having on Chicago's Black residents.
Earlier in his career, Elliott was one of the first mobile editors at the Wall Street Journal, helping shape new workflows and user experiences for the WSJ's iPad and iPhone apps. He was also a senior web editor at the New York Daily News, and has interned at the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago RedEye, and WBBM CBS2 Chicago.
Elliott has previously taught data journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and Columbia College Chicago. He is a contributor to the book Beyond Transparency: Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation. He is a FOIA booster, open data advocate, and a member of IRE, NLGJA, NAHJ, and SPJ.
Elliott is a Chicago native and lives in the Uptown neighborhood with his husband Drew and calico cat Boomer. He can easily (and eagerly) discuss the political and philosophical themes in Star Trek. 🖖