Education

B.A., Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.A., Journalism, University of Missouri at Columbia

Background

Gavin Off has been a journalist for nearly 20 years and a data reporter for more than a decade. He is currently the data reporter at the Charlotte Observer, where he sits on the newspaper's investigations team. He has also worked as a data reporter at the Tulsa World in Oklahoma and at Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C.

Off has taught data journalism classes at Queens University of Charlotte and East Carolina University.

Teaching

Off teaches a hands-on course in finding stories in data. Students learn to write functions and create pivot tables in Excel, clean and analyze data with Structured Query Language (SQL) and how to create interactive maps and charts in Datawrapper. The ultimate goal: to use data to become better storytellers.

Awards

• First place: McClatchy President’s Award for Journalism Excellence (2020, 2017, 2014, 2013, 2011)
• Third place: National Headliner Award (2020)
• First place: NCPA Investigative Reporting and NCPA Public Service Reporting awards (2019, 2018)
• Second place: National Headliner Award (2018)
• First place: NCPA Investigative Reporting (2017)
• First place: SPJ’s Sigma Delta Chi public service journalism award, 100,000-plus circulation (2015)
• Finalist: ASNE Local Accountability Reporting Award (2015)
• Finalist: Investigative Reporters & Editors FOI (2015)
• First place: NCPA Investigative Reporting and NCPA Public Service Reporting awards (2014)
• First place: NC FOI award (2013)