Expertise
Data-driven visual journalism centered on personal financeEducation
Harvard University and University of North Carolina at Chapel HillHighlights
Master of Science, Information Science (MSIS), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Member - Data Visualization Society
Former member - Society of American Business Editors and Writers, Association for Computing Machinery
There is no more important topic in American life right now than healthcare. As the population ages and the cost of medical treatment continues to soar, people want to know how to manage their health-related expenses and get the most out of their insurance. I feel fortunate that my role puts me in a position to help.
— Caren Weiner, MSIS
Experience
Caren Weiner, MSIS, began her personal finance journalism career in 1986. She worked as a reporter for Money magazine and co-wrote its book-length “Guide to the 1986 Tax Reform Act.” From the beginning, she immersed herself in data on mutual fund total returns and marginal tax rates.
Around that time, she also attended a one-day presentation by data visualization expert Edward Tufte that sparked her lifelong interest in visual communication.
Her wide-ranging journalism career has included stints as the special projects editor at Money, a staff writer at NerdWallet, senior editor at Zagat Survey, senior associate editor at Entertainment Weekly, and chief of research at Spy magazine. In those positions and during her years as a freelance personal finance writer for such outlets as Bankrate and AARP, she worked with countless datasets (including crowdsourced restaurant ratings, mutual fund prices, and loan statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration).
In 2009 she founded the consultancy Synoptical Charts, working with corporate and media clients to create data graphics and advise on data presentation strategy. Later, she co-founded the communications firm Epigram Communications, providing editing, writing, and data design services to various corporate clients in the fields of finance, real estate, and institutional risk.
In 2011, her data graphic about carbon offsets for air travel was included in the visualization compendium How to Land a Jumbo Jet (Lonely Planet Books), edited by Nigel Holmes. In 2013, two of her data graphics were awarded “staff pick” status by the editors at Visually.
In 2017 she became director of product communications for the public health software company Health Monitoring, based in Pittsburgh. Using multistate data collected by its hospital admissions tracking software, she analyzed the impact of the Affordable Care Act on emergency departments. The distribution of ED traffic data led her to conclude that clinician fatigue had more to do with the era’s facility closures and adoption of electronic health records than with higher patient volume.
In 2020, she presented a one-day data visualization workshop for the staff and faculty of St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.
She is currently a member of the Data Visualization Society.
Education
Caren earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and American language and literature from Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude.
In 2010, she enrolled in the master’s program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Library and Information Science (SILS). She focused her studies on data visualization and its related disciplines, aiming to advance her skills in communicating complex information through visualization.
During her time at UNC SILS, she won a Susan Grey Akers Scholarship and worked as an editor for former dean Barbara Moran. She also interned at the UNC Environmental Finance Center, where she worked on improving access to data tools and created content about how community investment in sustainable water management could pay for itself. She graduated in 2012 with a master’s degree in information science.
