Olga Pierce

Olga is data editor and a reporter at The Trace. Previously, she was an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska and deputy data editor at ProPublica. She has written award-winning stories about unemployment insurance, legislative redistricting, the foreclosure crisis, and patient harm in hospitals. She graduated with an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University in 2008. Her main data analysis tools are R and SQL, and she dotes on her three cats.

You’re More Likely to Be Shot in Selma Than in Chicago

Data

You’re More Likely to Be Shot in Selma Than in Chicago

Over the past decade, gun violence has expanded beyond the urban limits it is so often associated with, according to a Trace analysis of Gun Violence Archive data.

Olga Pierce, Jennifer Mascia, and Chip Brownlee
Here’s How We Analyzed 10 Years of GVA Data

Data

Here’s How We Analyzed 10 Years of GVA Data

The Gun Violence Archive is an independent organization that gathers information about gun violence via the news, social media, and police reports — and amasses it into a publicly available database. There are limitations to this approach: Not all…

Olga Pierce
A Guide to Understanding Mass Shootings in America

Mass Shooting

A Guide to Understanding Mass Shootings in America

How do attacks like the one in Lewiston, Maine, fit into America’s larger gun violence crisis? Our team corrects some common misperceptions.

Olga Pierce
Studying Gun Violence Is Hard. But Intervention Programs Need Research to Survive.

How We Fix This

Studying Gun Violence Is Hard. But Intervention Programs Need Research to Survive.

Critics say there isn’t enough traditional academic evidence to justify government investment in community violence interruption. But the programs are varied and neighborhoods aren’t laboratories, complicating ordinary evaluation.

Olga Pierce
Youth Gun Suicide Is Rising, Particularly Among Children of Color

Suicide

Youth Gun Suicide Is Rising, Particularly Among Children of Color

An American teenager took their life with a firearm every seven hours on average between 2019 and 2020.

Jennifer Mascia and Olga Pierce

The only newsroom dedicated to covering gun violence.

Olga Pierce

You’re More Likely to Be Shot in Selma Than in Chicago

Here’s How We Analyzed 10 Years of GVA Data

A Guide to Understanding Mass Shootings in America

Studying Gun Violence Is Hard. But Intervention Programs Need Research to Survive.

Youth Gun Suicide Is Rising, Particularly Among Children of Color