Two WSJ reporters added to its data team

Mike Siconolfi, editor of investigations at The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement:

We are proud to announce two — very familiar — additions to our data team. Christopher Weaver and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries are stellar WSJ reporters who have decided they want to immerse themselves in data-driven journalism. They will make an immediate impact in the newsroom’s ability to do stories and visuals using data, sometimes as partners on projects and sometimes doing their own investigations.

Chris joins the investigative team after more than eight years on the health-care beat, where he has covered hospitals, insurers, as well as drug and device makers. In recent years, he probed the global pharmaceutical gray market and the beleaguered launch of HealthCare.gov. For the past couple of years, he has focused on examining the practices and financial motivations of doctors, hospitals and other providers who bill the federal Medicare program. Chris led the writing and reporting in two of the leders in the Journal’s “Medicare Unmasked” series that was recognized, along with work of his colleagues, with the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting and a Gerald Loeb Award in the investigative category, among several other awards. Chris joined the Journal in 2011, after covering health policy for Kaiser Health News in Washington, D.C. for a few years. Before going into the news business he went to college at Tulane University in New Orleans, and worked for a nonprofit there. He has a masters degree from the University of Maryland’s journalism school. He and his wife live in New Jersey.

Jen already works on the investigative team, so she is simply changing roles. Until now, she has been a reporter covering computer security, surveillance and the law. From 2010-2013, she was a key member of the team behind “What They Know,” the Journal’s long-running series on digital privacy, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2012.  Her work on digital privacy, surveillance and censorship also has been honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Overseas Press Club and the Gerald Loeb Awards. Jen began her career at the Journal on the night production desk at WSJ.com. She later worked on the News Hub team, helped cover the 2008 Olympics from Beijing and was the lead writer and editor for the Journal’s technology blog, Digits. Originally from Texas, she now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and one-year-old daughter.

Chris and Jen will answer to our data editors, Tom McGinty and Rob Barry.

Please join us in congratulating Chris and Jen.