Teo Popescu
Design, Graphics, and Data Editor
About
Teo is the KUOW newsroom's design, graphics, and data editor. She manages all data visualizations, graphics, illustrations, and news video stories for kuow.org and Instagram. She also leads design and development for KUOW’s interactive feature stories, specializing in visualizing complex bureaucratic processes and budgets. She co-hosts Control F with Clare McGrane.
Teo came to KUOW in 2018 as the first in-house design lead at the station. She created the newsroom's graphics standards and style. In a previous era, she was a state political correspondent for PubliCola and the print editor of Nightingale, the magazine of the Data Visualization Society. Her work has appeared on PubliCola, KUOW, ProPublica, NPR, and the HBO show Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas. Outside of work, Teo likes spending time teaching graphic journalism courses at the University of Washington and UC Berkeley, or making mediocre furniture — the latter is still a work in progress.
Location: Seattle
Languages: English, Romanian
Pronouns: she/her
Professional Associations: Board Member, Society of Professional Journalists of Western Washington; Editor, Data Visualization Society
Podcasts
Stories
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What does your credit score really say about you?
Two journalists explain the history of credit scores, how credit scores are calculated and the complex ways that financial data impacts our daily lives.
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Introducing Control F, a podcast about the hidden data that influences our lives
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The year in numbers: 2025 in Seattle and Washington state
Record-breaking protests. A historic run for the Mariners. Mass tech layoffs. The closest local election in decades. Here are some of the numbers that shaped KUOW’s stories this year.
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Western Washington flood resources: Where to find shelter and supplies
This is a developing list of available flood resources as historic flooding continues to impact Western Washington.
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What's in Seattle's budget? Mapping the $8.9 billion spending plan Mayor Harrell leaves for Wilson
The Seattle City Council last week approved Mayor Bruce Harrell’s $9 billion dollar budget for 2026. That means when Seattle Mayor-elect Katie Wilson takes office in January, she and the new City Council will inherit those funding choices. Here’s what to know in the meantime — explained in pizza terms.
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Which employers seek H-1B visa workers in Washington state?
President Donald Trump sent shockwaves through the tech industry last month when he issued a proclamation restricting new H-1B visas to applicants whose petitions included a $100,000 payment. Here's what that could mean for Washington state.
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Seattle spent millions on hotel rooms to shelter unhoused people. Then it stopped filling them
Early last year, the city signed a $2.7 million lease extension to continue using a hotel’s rooms as shelter space. Yet despite committing to pay the rent, the city stopped sending people there.
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Under Trump’s ICE, people without criminal history increasingly targeted in WA
On the social media pages for the Seattle Field Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, scrolling lists of mug shots highlight people with criminal convictions. But these posts don’t reflect a growing pattern of who ICE is taking into custody.
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Here’s where NPR programming is broadcast in WA — and where funding cuts could impact coverage
Congress voted to rescind over $1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), cutting all federal funding for NPR, PBS, and their member stations.
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How Trump's birthright citizenship ban could impact all 50 states
A federal judge has once again blocked President Trump's birthright citizenship ban under a new class-action lawsuit, but the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the merits of the birthright citizenship ban itself. Here's what the ban could mean if allowed to take effect.