Sophia Jones

Sophia Jones is an open source researcher and capacity building manager with the Digital Investigations Lab, where she conducts deep-dive investigations to document and expose human rights abuses around the world. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, she spent a decade as a journalist, carrying out impactful investigations and reporting from nearly two dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Bosnia, Egypt, Ghana, and Turkey. She has been published by outlets including The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Politico, and Rolling Stone Magazine.

She has been honored with and shortlisted for multiple awards for her work, including from the American Society of Magazine Editors, the Military Reporters and Editors Association, the Overseas Press Club, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the South Asian Journalists Association.

Sophia previously served as executive editor at Starling Lab, a research center at Stanford and USC. There, she carried out an award-winning investigation into Bosnian War crimes, and also explored new tools to capture, store, and verify digital records. She was The Fuller Project’s global editor from 2017 to 2021, leading accountability reporting with newsrooms around the world. Before joining The Fuller Project, she reported for a variety of outlets from the Middle East and North Africa. 

Sophia holds a BA in international affairs, specializing in conflict and security, from The George Washington University. She frequently serves as a mentor, speaker, and advisor on issues of journalism and human rights research.