Sophie Chou
Sophie Chou is a data reporter at ProPublica.
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Sophie Chou is a data reporter at ProPublica. She uses statistics and data science to investigate stories. Before coming to ProPublica, she was a data journalist at Public Radio International, and a Google News fellow at the Pew Research Center, where she was a primary researcher on a report that used Google search data to measure the impact of media coverage of the Flint water crisis. Sophie earned her master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she researched how political news spread on Twitter during the 2016 elections, and completed an undergraduate degree in computer science at Columbia University.
Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.
ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas’ abortion ban.
Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and analyzed the outcomes before and after the ban.
This Guardian Enriched Herself Using the Finances of Vulnerable People In Her Care. Judges Let It Happen.
Judges allowed one of New York’s most prolific guardians to engage in apparent self-dealing as she transferred $1.5 million of her wards’ money to her own company.
Texas Sends Millions to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. It’s Meant to Help Needy Families, But No One Knows if It Works.
Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Texas leads the nation in funding for crisis pregnancy centers. The system is meant to help growing families, but it’s riddled with waste and lacks oversight, a ProPublica and CBS News investigation found.
The Failure to Track Data on Stillbirths Undermines Efforts to Prevent Them
Fetal death records are often missing cause of death, race and other crucial information. ProPublica found that the problem is only getting worse.
NYC Schools Handcuff and Haul Away Kids in Emotional Crisis
Despite a pledge to stop relying on police to deal with students who have mental health episodes, New York City schools have continued to call 911 on kids in distress thousands of times a year, an investigation by THE CITY and ProPublica found.
Local Reporting Network
Are Colorado’s Efforts to Curb HOA Foreclosures Working?
Homeowners associations have filed far fewer foreclosure cases since the state enacted a law aimed at protecting residents in disputes with their HOAs, according to a ProPublica-Rocky Mountain PBS analysis.
Local Reporting Network
HOA Foreclosures Are a “Lose-Lose” Game for Coloradans, but These Lawyers Win Regardless of the Outcome
A retired NFL player’s legal battle with a homeowners association spotlights why critics say Colorado law incentivizes attorneys to advise that HOAs foreclose on residents rather than find less expensive solutions.
Local Reporting Network
Behind the Key Decision That Left Many Poor Homeowners Without Enough Money to Rebuild After Katrina
National politics spawned a Hurricane Katrina rebuilding program based on pre-storm home values, leading to disparities between rich and poor.
Local Reporting Network
An Exodus Unlike Any Other: Why Half the People in This Community Moved Away After Hurricane Katrina
After Hurricane Katrina devastated St. Bernard Parish, many residents didn’t receive enough money from the state to rebuild. Nearly half made the difficult decision to start over somewhere else.
Local Reporting Network
The Federal Program to Rebuild After Hurricane Katrina Shortchanged the Poor. New Data Proves It.
For years, low-income residents of New Orleans have said the state’s Road Home program paid them less to rebuild their homes compared to wealthier residents. They were right.
Local Reporting Network