Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he is a professor and teaches investigative and advanced reporting. He is the co-author of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook and author of Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide.
Houston also is deeply involved in the creation of investigative journalism centers in the U.S. and internationally. In addition, he is working on investigative projects that demonstrate the use of the latest digital tools to collect and analyze data and information as part of those projects.
Houston is co-founder and coordinator of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, president of the board of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and a member of the board of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. He also is as an adviser to several other start-up state investigative centers.
Before becoming the Knight Chair, he was executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) for 12 years. He also was a professor in journalism at the University of Missouri where IRE and NICAR are located. As executive director, Houston oversaw all of IRE and NICAR’s programs and personally conducted hundreds of seminars in the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. He continues to conduct professional training for U.S. and international journalists.
Houston was a daily journalist for 17 years before he joined IRE. He was an award-winning investigative reporter at The Hartford Courant and at The Kansas City Star where he was part of the newsroom staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of a hotel building collapse. He began his career by working for news organizations in the Boston area. His newsroom experience included database editor for The Courant and serving on investigative teams at the The Courant and The Star. He also covered numerous beats – among them courts, state government, health and the environment.
