Melody J. Kramer

Hello, I’m Mel.

I’m a librarian and journalist. I currently work at ProPublica, where I lead efforts around building products and tools for engagement and crowdsourcing efforts to fuel journalism in the public interest.

Recently, I’ve:

• Served as librarian-in-residence for the Knight Election Hub, a pop-up newsroom connecting journalists with election expertise during the 2024 election cycle
• Led a pop-up newsroom to support journalists in WNC with products and editorial tools in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene
• Archived every local political candidate website in the country over two cycles, ensuring that academics and journalists can access them in the Internet Archive
• Shaped communications for a group of population researchers and demographers at UNC-Chapel Hill
• Advised a foundation on how to create community and connections within its fellowship program
• Mapped audiences for the 5th largest website in the world

You can see some of my work here.

My work and research has been featured by The New York Times, iTunes, Nieman’s Journalism Lab, Mashable, Poynter, the Shorty Awards, Knight-Mozilla Open News, USA Today, GigaOm, and the Village Voice Web Awards, among others.

I live in Carrboro, NC with my very-offline family. In my spare time, I serve as chair of the water and sewage board and contribute to a civic news collective covering Chapel Hill and Carrboro.