David Landerman

Howard Fellow David Landerman is a critical thinker with a friendly nature and an odd sense of humor. He is a second-career journalism student with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Landerman is pivoting to investigative journalism for the same reason he became an engineer — to make a positive impact. He is committed to using his empathetic nature, ADHD superpowers and inability to let important things go to spotlight legitimized exploitation.

Landerman is a generalist with diverse working experience in renewable energy, medical devices and semiconductor equipment. He also has had more public-facing jobs in restaurants, schools and even drove a pedicab for a while. While working as a test engineer, he realized his passion gravitated not toward science and technology but toward investigation and advocacy on behalf of his fellow employees. His most inspired projects were all self-initiated research into benefits issues, retirement plan transparency and other employee-led initiatives. After this, he noticed a pattern: the ease of interactions with strangers on his pedicab, the satisfaction from probing conversations with that random party guest, the urge for extensive research that certain articles would inspire. It all pointed to a much happier life in journalism.

His goal is to become an investigative reporter focusing on health care, financial policy, labor disputes, regulatory process, corporate malfeasance, you name it. If it’s important, boring and purposefully opaque, Landerman wants to find a way to make it engaging for the public. He’s eager to learn from his professors as well as his peers, and work hard for the people whose stories he hopes to tell.