Mike is a senior lecturer at the University of Illinois-Chicago and founder of JournalistsToolbox.ai, a free website featuring AI tools and training videos. He’s the author of two books: “Data + Journalism” (Routledge, 2023) and
“The Journalist’s Toolbox: A Guide to Digital Reporting and AI” (Routledge 2024).
Mike has spent the past decade teaching Google News Initiative and other digital and AI-driven tools to more than 22,000 journalists and educators in more than 600 trainings in 46 states. He’s currently the lead trainer for both the RTDNA/GNI Election Fact-Checking Program and the ONA/Microsoft AI in Journalism training program.
He also is co-founder of and trainer with Penny Press Digital LLC, a consulting and training company that has several clients, including Gannett. When he’s not doing trainings, he teaches data and multimedia journalism at UIC, where he is a full-time faculty member.
A former reporter at the LA Times and web editor at the Chicago Tribune, Mike served for 13 years as a faculty member at Northwestern, Arizona State University and DePaul University, teaching digital journalism to hundreds of students and professional journalists. He is in his 11th year at UIC, where he runs the Chicago data-driven news site, The Red Line Project (redlineproject.news).
An early adopter of the web, he is one of the 11 founding editors of ChicagoTribune.com.
Mike holds journalism degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (undergrad) and Northwestern University (masters). Twitter: @itsmikereilley @journtoolbox | Email:
[email protected]
