Sean Mussenden

Sean Mussenden is a principal lecturer in data journalism and investigative reporting at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. He is the data editor of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism — a student-powered, data-driven investigative reporting unit run by the college that was named as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting.

For nearly two decades, Mussenden has worked with early career journalism students, faculty colleagues and professional news organization partners to produce data-driven investigations that drive change. To complement this work, he does research into the design and development of innovative software tools that use artificial intelligence to help reporters find and make sense of information. 

He specializes in the use of data science methods, computational techniques and artificial intelligence as part of the investigative reporting process. Under the direction of Mussenden and his colleagues, student journalists have produced more than a dozen in-depth, reporting projects with reporters and editors from The Associated Press, NPR, The Washington Post, FRONTLINE (PBS), PBS NewsHour, USA Today, Kaiser Health News and others.   

His investigative data work with students, faculty colleagues and professional partners has consistently led to positive change in important areas of public policy. These areas include deaths in police custody, climate change, homelessness, inequities in state lotteries, worker safety, food safety, human trafficking, health inequity, nursing homes, the criminal justice system, lynchings, evictions and juvenile justice. 

Working alongside the AP global investigations team and FRONTLINE documentary producers to investigate deaths in police custody, he recently led a dozen Howard Center student data journalists in a computational analysis of a collection of 200,000 digital documents — obtained through nearly 7,000 distinct public records requests — that produced key investigative findings for multiple stories. His student team also built custom software tools to allow reporters from AP, FRONTLINE and the Howard Center to more easily surface relevant facts from the repository of digital documents. 

The project — "Lethal Restraint" — was honored as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting, won three other major national journalism awards and earned two news/documentary Emmy nominations. 

As a current doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland College of Information, he conducts research at the intersection of data science, artificial intelligence and journalism. That research feeds into his work with local news organizations to build AI-powered technological tools that help reporters identify newsworthy civic information more efficiently. 

Mussenden joined Merrill College in 2009. He founded the Capital News Service data and graphics bureau and ran it until 2019, when he helped found the Howard Center. He has taught courses in data journalism, computational journalism, investigative reporting and artificial intelligence. 

Prior to joining Merrill, he worked as a local government reporter, state government reporter and Washington correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel and Media General News Service, specializing in the use of data analysis as part of the investigative reporting process. He started his journalism career at The (Annapolis) Capital, his hometown newspaper.  

He has a bachelor’s degree in history and public policy from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a master’s degree in journalism from Merrill College, and a master’s degree in information science from the University of Maryland College of Information. 

He lives in University Park, Maryland, with his wife and twin toddlers.