Roberto "Berto" Scalese is a Boston-based journalist with more than 24 years of experience. A true generalist, he's written about everything from fires, manhunts and politics, to the types of snow shovelers in New England, who orders their coffee "regular" and how Massachusetts lost its war on turkeys.

Beyond reporting, Scalese is an accomplished editor in both print and digital media, helping to mentor young writers and provide structure and support to veteran scribes. He also provides web production to edited work, bringing imagery, data and animation to help enliven the page.

He's also a data visualization specialist, using tools like Flourish, Datawrapper and Mapbox to help readers make sense of the numbers that run our world. Much of that work can be seen in WBUR's Field Guide to Boston, where dozens of his visualizations power the neighborhood guides.

Scalese has been tasked as the digital team's primary contact for WBUR's environmental team, providing support and guidance to the team's incredible roster of reporters and editors.

He's also worked on several policy-writing committees, helping to develop WBUR's code of ethics and the newsroom's guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence.

Previous to joining WBUR in 2019, he was an editor at Boston.com, ran the newsroom at The Daily Item in Lynn and reported at more local news outlets than you've probably ever heard of. He's also the founder and writer of The Last Hurrah, the once and future Boston history newsletter.