People

 Brooke Williams

Justice Media Co-Founder and Associate Professor of the Practice of Computational Journalism, BU College of Communication, Department of Journalism

Brooke is an investigative reporter and educator who specializes in data journalism. Her work has contributed to a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, a George Polk Award and a Gerald Loeb Award, among many others.

As a contributor to The New York Times, she co-authored and built the database behind a series of front-page investigations into think tanks, foreign governments, corporations and influence. As a reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, Williams was on the team that produced “Windfalls of War,” an award-winning investigation into defense contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also co-authored “Harmful Error: Investigating America’s Local Prosecutors” and contributed a chapter to “The Buying of the President 2004,” a New York Times bestselling book. Early in her career, she worked as an investigative reporter at The San Diego Union-Tribune where her collaborative investigations into wildfire cleanup, city finances and other issues had a lasting impact.

Before joining Boston University, she was a residential journalism fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. 

Ziba Cranmer

Justice Media Co-Founder and Director of BU Spark! at the BU Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences

Ziba Cranmer is the director of BU SPARK!, an initiative for student-centered entrepreneurship and innovation in computing. Ziba is an innovation leader with a diverse range of experience spanning the public and private sectors. Prior to BU, Ziba served as Executive Director of a multimillion-dollar initiative supporting public sector innovators in cities across the United States to combat sex trafficking through technology. Ziba spent over 11 years working in business including an extended period at Nike Inc. where she was a Director in the Sustainable Business and Innovation Lab, a venture unit responsible for making investments with the potential for business and social impact. After Nike, Ziba was a Vice President of Corporate Responsibility and Social Impact at Cone Communications where she led consulting engagements for major brands including Fedex, Disney, and Hilton Worldwide.

Langdon White

Spark! Technical Director & Clinical Assistant Professor, BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences

Langdon White is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences and serves as Technical Directors at BU Spark!. He is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry and has spent his career working as CTO, Chief Architect, Vice President, software advocate, architect, and software engineer for a variety of types of companies from startups to Fortune 50.

Osama Alshaykh

Lecturer and Assistant Research Professor (ECE) Civic Tech Fellow, BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences

Osama is a faculty member in the electrical and computer engineering department at Boston University. He is founder of collaborate.center (Knowledge collaboration platform) used in telecommunications and construction (TalonView) and healthcare (CEO of nxtec and CTO and board member of Talon and Collaborate Health). He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on CSVT and an area Editor for Signal Processing: Image Communication, Theory, Techniques & Applications Journal, and was part of the founding team of PacketVideo Corporation and was its CTO. Osama served as a research scientist in Rockwell Science Center and Visiting Researcher at University of California Berkeley.  

Osama has a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Tech, MSc. from Iowa State University and BSc. in Electrical Engineering from University of Jordan. He received the BU ECE Award of Excellence in Teaching, 2015, the BU ECE Best Class Award, 2016 and Fulbright Scholarship, 1991, and served on a variety of corporation, technology, and development boards.

Michelle Johnson

Justice Media Expert in Residence, Professor Emerita, BU College of Communication, Department of Journalism

Michelle Johnson, a former editor for the Boston Globe, was part of the team that launched the Globe’s award-winning regional website, boston.com. Prior to moving into online media she was an editor for the Metro, National, Foreign and Business sections of the newspaper.

Johnson served as assistant political editor, senior assistant business editor, senior assistant night editor, and for many years as a copy editor, before being named the first editorial manager of boston.com in 1995.

After leaving the Globe, she wrote a personal technology column for the paper. She has extensive experience writing, editing and producing multimedia for both print and online.

Johnson was awarded a Knight Fellowship to study for a year at Stanford University in 1993. She has received awards for excellence from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA).

For more than 15 years, Johnson has taught numerous multimedia workshops for both professional journalists from news organizations around the country and student training programs for a variety of professional journalism organizations including the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Maynard Institute, NABJ, NLGJA, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association and UNITY, Journalists of Color Inc.

Prior to joining the faculty at Boston University, Johnson was a Journalist-in-Residence at Emerson College where she also spent several years as technology manager assisting in the renovation of the department into a multimillion-dollar, cross-platform facility, as well as helping to revise the department’s curriculum. She also lectured as an adjunct in the journalism department at Boston University from 2003 to 2006.

Johnson’s work and teaching have taken her to newsrooms, schools and programs engaged in training professional journalists and journalism students nationwide and internationally.

Lydia Holck

Operations Director, BU Spark! 

Lydia joined the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences in 2022 as Spark! Operations Director. Prior to joining BU, Lydia spent seven years as Operations Manager at Community Charter School of Cambridge. She is a current MBA student at BU’s Questrom School of Business and earned a BA from Boston College.

Lydia grew up in a small town in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. She earned her BA from Boston College where she studied education and sociology. After graduating, she found herself in the Match Education tutor corps, working directly with students and getting her first glimpse into school operations. She then transitioned to a full time role at Community Charter School of Cambridge (CCSC) where she stayed, carving out operations roles for herself, for 7 years. At CCSC, Lydia led staff and student scheduling, academic testing, and all health and safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Michelle Voong

Data Science Solutions Engineer, BU Spark!

Michelle earned her MS in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Connecticut. She has industry experience in building identity solutions and proposal writing, as well as research experience in social media analysis. Her interests include applications of data science related to social issues and fostering an environment that enables students to collaborate and innovate.