Acting Director, Columbia
Michael Krisch is the Acting Director at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a bicoastal research center at Columbia Journalism School and Stanford Engineering that reimagines how we find and tell stories. In his role, Krisch oversees a myriad of special projects and grants, including bicoastal collaborations, while also shaping the Institute’s programmatic offerings.
Recent projects led by Krisch include Locale Observer, a tool to help newsrooms and philanthropic organizations identify geographic gaps in coverage; Grades of Heat, an investigative tool exploring the thermal legacy of redlining in America; The Curse of Dimensionality, an interrogation of algorithms and their relationship to conflict, currently on exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025; and data analysis for Scorching Cells, an investigation into heat in the US prison system.