Alec Glassford

Hi. I work as a senior software engineer at ProPublica. I build and maintain systems and patterns that help produce investigative journalism in the public interest: frontend component libraries, Docker-based backend architectures, and everything in between. I focus on tools for our news applications team, which creates interactive databases and stories that make complex or hidden information comprehensible to as many people as possible.

In this role, I'm also a journalist sometimes and contribute directly to new interactive databases; for example:

• I'm a co-author and active maintainer of Nonprofit Explorer, one of the most thorough sources of information about the financials of tax-exempt organizations in the U.S.
• I contributed to a searchable database of Supreme Court justices' financial disclosures.
• I contributed to a searchable database of instutitions holding Native American remains.

Previously, I worked as a senior technical writer at Google. I still strive to write (and maintain!) beautiful and clean documentation in the course of my work. I frequently remind myself that clear communication, reproducibility, and empathy are incredibly valuable for collaboration. (Also: good documentation is a pleasure!)

Thanks for stopping by! 💫🌱

Learn more and contact me

• See my LinkedIn profile.
• Email me at glassford@cs.stanford.edu.
• See an older version of this website, which links to many of my academic and early career projects.