Through reporting and hand-drawn illustrations, Mona Chalabi brings data to life, telling accessible stories about the numbers shaping our future.

Mona Chalabi is a journalist who brings humanity — and sometimes, humor — to complex data on topics like police brutality, income inequality, climate change, and other issues of social justice. Drawing on her experience working with datasets at the Bank of England, Transparency International, and the International Organization for Migration, Chalabi is dedicated to making numbers as accessible as possible without compromising on accuracy.

Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Guardian US, where she is the data editor. She is also an illustrator whose work has been commended by the Royal Statistical Society, and has been exhibited at several galleries, including the Tate and the Design Museum.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests for racial justice in the U.S., Chalabi has made work that translates tricky statistics and data into emotional illustrations that make important social-justice issues urgent and accessible.

As an Emerson Collective Fellow, Chalabi is working on a book exploring income inequality in the age of COVID-19. Drawing on in-depth interviews, personal datasets, national statistics, and international comparisons, Chalabi will work to uncover the human stories behind the statistics, revealing how income could determine how someone weathers the economic and health crises.