Elan Kiderman is joining The Marshall Project as its first Director of Product. Kiderman will be responsible for upholding and expanding The Marshall Project’s award-winning design and creating new products and newsletters. He will also work on expanding the organization’s audience and reach, from everyday news stories to marquee features to membership. Kiderman will report to editor-in-chief Susan Chira.
“We feel very lucky that Elan will be working with us at this urgent moment for our country,” Chira said. “He is not only a creative and thoughtful designer, but his background in developing news products and his experience with audience will be invaluable as we seek new ways to expose, explain and investigate abuses and inequities in the criminal justice and immigration systems .”
Elan previously worked as Design Director for R&D at Quartz, where for the past five years he has designed award-winning news products, data visualization platforms, brands and tools. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Design at Chatham University in Pittsburgh (and previously taught at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism), as well as the founder of Inside Voices, a pop-up design agency that donates all of its profits to COVID-19 relief.
“The death of George Floyd, as well as the plight of the incarcerated during the pandemic, has reinforced for me the importance of The Marshall Project's work,” said Kiderman. “Design is often thought of as inherently virtuous, but it can just as easily be used to prop up violent tools and inequitable systems. School-to-prison pipelines, felony disenfranchisement laws, and police protocols are all designed. I am honored to be given the opportunity to use design in the service of shining a light on the criminal justice system by helping The Marshall Project tell groundbreaking stories, reach a wider range of audiences, and amplify the voices of those most directly impacted by mass incarceration.”
Elan will be based in Pittsburgh.
