Biography
Jonathan Schwabish is a visiting lecturer at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., and the founder of PolicyViz, a data visualization and presentation skills firm. At Urban, he serves as a researcher in the Tax and Income Supports Division and as a member of the institute’s communications team, specializing in data visualization and presentation design. His research primarily focuses on nutrition and disability policy.
Widely regarded as a leader in the data visualization field, Schwabish is a prominent voice for clarity and accessibility in research. He has written extensively on technical approaches to visualization, design best practices and strategies for communicating social science research more effectively. He speaks frequently on data visualization, open data and organizational data use.
Schwabish teaches data visualization and presentation skills at Georgetown University and American University, and he leads public workshops and private trainings through PolicyViz. He also hosts the PolicyViz Podcast, which explores data, open data and visualization topics.
He is the author of four books — Better Presentations, Elevate the Debate, Better Data Visualizations and Data Visualization in Excel — which offer practical guidance for creating and communicating data rich content. His forthcoming book, Thoughtful Data: A Guide to Empathy and Equity in Data Communication, co authored with Alice Feng, is scheduled for release in 2026.
Education
PhD Syracuse University, 2003 MA Syracuse University, 2003 MA Johns Hopkins University, 2001 BA University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1998