Executive Director
Knight Lab
Joe Germuska is the Executive Director of Northwestern University Knight Lab, a community of designers, developers, students, and educators working on experiments designed to push journalism into new spaces. Joe is primarily interested in helping journalists evolve their practice to serve 21st century audiences: helping them learn technology skills and develop new ways of thinking about form and process. At Knight Lab, he has: been a key part in the research and production of two Next Gen News reports; has overseen the Lab's suite of open-source, freely usable storytelling tools; led or co-led over three dozen student project teams in the innovative Knight Lab Studio class; and mentored a good number of students who have gone on to become innovators and leaders in journalism and beyond. He is the founder and project lead of Census Reporter, a tool to make Census data easier for journalists and everyone else, and he is proud to serve as the board chair for City Bureau, a civic media lab that designs people-powered journalism practices and supports their local adoption and adaptation across the country.
His background is eclectic: a student of both history and product design/development; a developer for the world wide web from literally its earliest days; business experience as a programmer and technical leader; an early organizer for "open government" and civic technology; a newsroom application developer at the Chicago Tribune; and a teacher, mentor, and advocate for diverse tech practitioners.
Reimagining News for Next Generation Audiences: A Flash Workshop
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT