Matt Carroll

Jun 15, 2026

Data Journalist · Spotlight Team Alumnus · Professor of the Practice,

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Northeastern University (Professor of Practice)

MIT Media Lab (former Research Scientist)

Boston Globe Spotlight Team (2001–02)

Pulitzer Prize 2003

Biography

Matt Carroll is an American data journalist and journalism educator who served approximately 26 years at The Boston Globe — including six years on the Spotlight Team — and was the data specialist on the 2001–2002 investigation of Catholic clergy sexual abuse that won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Carroll built and maintained the database that tracked accused priests, victims, church assignments, and geographic movements across the Archdiocese of Boston — the core evidentiary infrastructure of the investigation. He was portrayed by Brian d'Arcy James in the Academy Award-winning film Spotlight (2015), a portrayal he has observed with characteristic dry humor made "making a spreadsheet, which is unbelievably dull and boring, look like a sexy thing."

Carroll is a graduate of Northeastern University's School of Journalism, from which he received his undergraduate degree. He is considered among the first generation of US data journalists, having begun working with data at the Globe in the mid-1990s before the term was in common use. After leaving the Globe in 2014, he joined the MIT Media Lab as a research scientist, leading the Future of News Initiative — convening journalists around real-world media problems and developing cutting-edge reporting tools. He subsequently joined Northeastern University's School of Journalism (his alma mater) as a Professor of the Practice, where he teaches data journalism and co-teaches courses including Telling Your Story with Data. He also writes the "3 to Read" newsletter — a weekly curation of three stories about journalism (subscribe: 3toread@gmail.com).