Mississippi Today · Mississippi Today · September 8, 2026
Julie Lee is joining Mississippi Today and the Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center as a data reporter.
Julie Lee
Lee, who earned a master’s degree in investigative journalism and a doctorate in neuroscience, will analyze complex data sets and tell the stories behind the numbers.
“I was drawn to journalism because I wanted to have an impact,” said Lee, who began work Tuesday. “I am honored to have the opportunity to do that two-fold, by putting my data skills to use where it is needed and to do that in a place that is full of important, untold stories.
“As a data reporter, I always strive to center the lived experiences of the real people that comprise data and documents,” she said. “I am looking forward to meeting those people through my reporting and through that of my esteemed colleagues at Mississippi Today.”
The Deep South Today Investigative Reporting Center launched earlier this year and includes full-time investigative and data reporters, as well as New York Times local investigations fellows at Mississippi Today and Verite News in New Orleans. It receives support from Big Local News, a data-sharing journalism program at Stanford University.
“Julie brings exceptional rigor and intellectual curiosity to her work,” Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus said. “We are eager to see how she applies her skills here as part of the investigative reporting team.”
After earning her doctoral degree, Lee spent two years as a public interest technologist in Massachusetts, conducting data-driven investigations into policing, surveillance and algorithmic decision-making systems. She then attended Columbia University, where she graduated from the masters in investigative journalism program with honors. While in graduate school, she was awarded the Philip Greer Memorial Scholarship Award for achievements in financial writing.
Lee most recently spent a summer as a Dow Jones News Fund data intern at the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, where she worked on an investigation with the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel.