Terry Parris Jr.

Terry Parris Jr. is the Public Square editor for Headway, an initiative at The New York Times. He specializes in engagement-centered reporting. He has worked with newsrooms, libraries, universities, and community groups to build relationships, cultivate meaningful engagement, and produce impactful journalism.  Parris has led several groundbreaking initiatives, including building ProPublica’s first engagement reporting team; creating “MISSING THEM” at THE CITY, a project honoring the lives of New Yorkers lost to COVID-19; and launching the Open Newsroom project, also at THE CITY. In 2024, he launched HomeLab, an interdisciplinary storytelling project focused on New York City’s housing struggles, and the Library Newsroom Project, which co-creates with residents to learn, educate, and produce the news and stories they need.  As a deputy editor at ProPublica, Parris was part of a team that was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for investigating algorithmic injustice. He teaches at Queens College and has taught and mentored students at Columbia and CUNY. He recently completed a master’s degree in library and information science at Pratt Institute, where he studied how journalism and libraries can intersect to rebuild public trust.