Jodi L. Upton has been the Knight Chair in Data and Explanatory Journalism since 2016, focusing on two areas of data research: college athletics finances and police disciplinary documents in New York.

As an expert in revenues and expenses in college athletics, she has been a consultant for the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. She regularly works with media outlets including Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, ESPN and the USA TODAY Network on stories using sports data. She has also co-written multiple academic research papers on athletics spending and equity.

Since 2020, she has worked with the USA TODAY Network/New York collecting thousands of police officer disciplinary documents in New York. Her students have published multiple stories on systemic issues and problem officers who are rarely disciplined.

She has also worked on many smaller projects, including transcribing for an historic Syracuse cemetery and creating data to document the Yazidi genocide in Iraq. She has brought in $1 million in grants to support her work.

Previously she led the data investigative team at USA TODAY.