Hi! I'm Ava Mandoli.

I'm a senior studying journalism, global history and data science at Northwestern University. This summer, I was an editorial intern at Inc. Magazine through the American Society of Magazine Editors internship program. There, I wrote a variety of quick, reported and data-driven stories about all facets of American entrepreneurship.Previously, I've been a data reporter for Investigate Midwest and a student fellow at Medill's Local News Accelerator. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, I'm a proud Midwesterner and care deeply about the health of the region's local news ecosystem.At Northwestern, I co-founded the Data Journalism Collective and have worked in many capacities at student publications. At The Daily Northwestern, I started the paper's data visualization desk and served as a digital managing editor. At magazines like North By Northwestern and NUAZN, I've served as an editor, writer and photographer.And when I'm not reporting, writing, taking photos or poking around an interesting dataset, you'll probably find me testing new recipes, crocheting another scarf, or exploring a Chicago neighborhood I haven't been to yet.Ultimately, I'm most passionate about telling stories that are data-driven and people-centered--through every medium possible.You can contact me at [email protected].

My writing & data journalism:

Tim Tkachenko Has 60-Plus Co-Founders. Why He Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way – Inc. Magazine

  • For Inc. Magazine, I wrote this feature tracing the breakneck expansion of this running club for entrepreneurs across the world. The piece landed in Inc.'s Premium section, the magazine's prime location for inspiring and intriguing people-driven narratives.

  • Here's a PDF version of the story if you can't access it.

Austin Tops This List of Startup Hot Spots. Does Your City Rank? – Inc. Magazine

  • I analyzed 2024 Inc. 5000 data in R to create this list of up-and-coming entrepreneurial hubs in the U.S. I identified the top industry in each metro area, then interviewed the highest-ranked company in that industry to paint a picture of the entrepreneurial character of each area.

  • I also created an interactive map so people in other popular metro areas could explore how their region stacked up to the top 10.

  • Here's a PDF version of the story if you can't access it.

Employees Want Better--and Wider Ranging--Caregiver Policies – Inc. Magazine

  • At Inc., I wrote an average of three quick hits per week in addition to pursuing enterprise stories. My beat encompassed everything from the future of workplaces, to employee satisfaction, to the rapidly changing labor market.

  • In quick hits, I frequently included data visualizations to illustrate key points, as I did in this story about the caregiving responsibilities many employees have.

Iowa skipper butterfly 'canary in coal mine': A warning sign of prairie loss consequences for farmers, wildlife alike – Investigate Midwest

  • I interviewed over a dozen conservation experts, farmers and government employees to write this story about the intertwined plight of the Iowa skipper butterfly and our country's agricultural system.

  • To show the scope of prairie degradation in the Midwest, I analyzed data from the USDA and EPA and created an interactive map in Flourish.

  • I also took photos of Fults Hill Prairie (pictured above) to illustrate the rich biodiversity of this overlooked ecosystem.

GRAPHIC: More than 75% of egg-laying hens live in states with little-to-no welfare protections – Investigate Midwest

  • Farmed animal welfare legislation has long been lacking in the U.S. I combined two datasets – one on the number of egg-laying hens per state and another on what each state's battery cage regulations are – to develop this map in Flourish. The results highlighted the states where increased battery cage legislation would make a big difference.

  • This was a quick turnaround data vis and explainer for Investigate Midwest's "Graphic of the Week."

A Coalition’s Composition: Examining the "PI" in AAPI – nuAZN

  • I co-wrote this story for Northwestern's Asian American-interest magazine, nuAZN, to draw attention to the importance of using umbrella terms thoughtfully and meaningfully.

Here’s how Evanston has allocated $42 million of its ARPA funding over the last two years – The Daily Northwestern

  • I founded The Daily Northwestern's Data Visualization Desk in Winter 2023. One project I helped create and edit was this Tableau dashboard depicting Evanston's American Rescue Plan Act funding allocation. The interactive dashboard allows users to explore what city services and programs received the most and least funding.

My portfolio also includes photography, web design, video, and other multimedia-forward work:

Starting The Daily Northwestern's Data Vis Desk


In Winter 2023, I took on the challenge of starting a data visualization desk at The Daily Northwestern, my school's 140+ year-old student newspaper. My experience with data journalism at that point was limited to a single introductory statistics course, but I jumped at the opportunity to integrate the sort of coverage I admired in other publications into our own.I spent that quarter constantly communicating with the city and campus desk editors and brainstorming data-driven angles for their coverage areas. I reached out to every writer that signed up for a story on the budget and offered suggestions for data visualizations to include. And I recruited everyone I knew with a vauge interest in data science or graphics to pitch original content for our desk.My priority was making data journalism as accessible as possible to anyone who was interested, so I trained desk members in no-code platforms like Flourish, Datawrapper, ArcGIS and Knight Lab tools. And I developed a data visualization style guide to ensure stylistic consistency throughout our coverage (photos below).

Here are a few stories I'm proudest of making and/or guiding as an editor:

It was this quarter that made me realize how passionate I am about data journalism. I'm so thankful for the support of assistant desk editor Zoey Soh and the rest of the managing staff for their help in creating this legacy for the paper.