Alden Loury, Sr. Policy Analyst – BGA
Alden Loury is a senior policy analyst with the Better Government Association — a nonpartisan, nonprofit government watchdog — providing research, data analysis, lobbying and writing on government efficiency and public corruption. Loury joined the BGA in October 2011 as a senior investigator and documented how Illinois lawmakers awarded scholarship perks to campaign donors and political workers; revealed that Chicago aldermen drew ward boundaries to exclude their political challengers and the people who supported them; and documented more than a million dollars of public money was spent in one year to provide free parking for government workers among other stories.
Prior to joining the BGA, Loury spent 12 years at The Chicago Reporter–an investigative magazine and website focusing on communities of color in the Chicago region–where he served as a reporter, editor and publisher. During his time there, Loury won national and local awards, including the Studs Terkel Award. As a reporter he examined the effectiveness of community policing and documented racial disparities in drug sentencing, jury selection and jury verdicts. As an editor, he led more than 50 investigative projects examining the impact of race and poverty in lottery ticket sales, fatal police shootings of civilians, retail leakage in black neighborhoods, residential development surrounding demolished public housing and subprime home mortgage lending, among others.
Loury has discussed his work on CNN, NBC5, WTTW Chicago Tonight and Chicago Public Radio. His research has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times,Crain’s Chicago Business, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, The Chicago Defender, and on the local NBC, ABC, FOX, WGN affiliates and various radio stations.
Loury began his journalism career in Champaign, Illinois, where he worked as a radio anchor/reporter and newspaper reporter covering government and social services. Loury is a 1997 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A Chicago native, Loury grew up in the LeClaire Courts public housing development and the South Side’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, where he lives today. Loury is married with three daughters.