Aidan Thomas Hughes

Investigative Reporter and Data Fellow - Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

• Led a reporting team investigating the tactics used by a powerful lobbying group to dominate debate on a policy issue in Congress, which was published in partnership with Politico
• Cultivated sources including members of Congress, underrepresented voices, municipal leaders and nationally recognized policy experts to build upon stories originally identified through data analysis
• Helped lead a team of data journalists to build, clean and analyze a database of public records for an investigative series on privately funded trips for members of congress
• Currently developing a Python-based data pipeline that uses a large language model (LLM) to accurately extract information from tens of thousands of foreign agent registration documents'

Data Scientist - Symphony Health Solutions

• Assisted the Privacy Risk Review team in analyzing proposals for analytics, machine learning projects, and workflows to ensure compliance with HIPAA regulations for de­-identification

Master of Journalism - University of Maryland (expected May 2025)

• Published in-depth pieces on Maryland state policies and congressional elections
• Completed coursework in public affairs reporting, data journalism, open source intelligence data and investigative reporting with AI
• Worked as a teaching assistant for the Dow Jones News Fund’s data internship program

MA Conflict Transformation and Social Justice - Queen's University Belfast

• Used open source information from video sharing platforms, internet forums and news reports to analyze the political behaviors and strategies of extremist groups

BA International Studies and Creative Writing

• Dept. of Political Science Teaching Assistant and VT Writing Center Coach
• Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets