Denise Ajiri

Denise Ajiri is an award-winning data & investigative journalist and risk assessment analyst. Born and raised in Iran, she has had a global career and is based in New York today.

Denise’s work frequently has an economic and cross-border span. She uses data and investigative skills to connect the dots and often to expose wrongdoing. Her work has been published in multiple outlets in the US and Europe. 

Beyond her individual work, Denise has been a contributor to a variety of marquee cooperative journalistic efforts including the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Univision/Columbia University, and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Denise is a graduate of Iran’s flagship Tehran University. She earned her Master’s at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2015 as a Stabile fellow. She returned to Columbia in 2017 as a postdoctoral research scholar. 

Denise is a winner of the Online News Association’s MJ Bear Fellowship and continues to serve on its committee. She later received an Online News Association award for her work around Iranian elections. Denise is fluent in Persian and Assyrian and conversant in Turkish and Azeri.