Meet John Beaton. John was an intern and Roadie with Invisible Children before heading to DC to work on the LRA Crisis Tracker from the offices of our friends and partners at Resolve. John just rejoined our ranks here at Invisible Children, and will be working full-time on the LRA Crisis Tracker.

I’ve been working on the LRA Crisis Tracker for a year now. I started with Resolve in January of 2011 and have been working on it full-time since. Over the last 12 months, I have entered hundreds, maybe thousands, of LRA incidents into our database. Unlike many people out there who find data entry to be dull, I find my job to be both fascinating and challenging considering the reality of the data I work with and the complexity of the reports I receive.

As of this January, I am continuing my work on the LRA Crisis Tracker with Invisible Children. My official title is “Crisis Tracker Project Developer.” Beyond being one of the people entering reports in our database, I am also in charge of vetting all the reports that are entered by both Invisible Children and Resolve and ensuring that our reports get distributed to interested parties in a timely manner. Lastly, I’m working with Invisible Children and Resolve to plan “Phase II” of the Crisis Tracker, which will involve expanding the data that is available, improving various aspects of the Crisis Tracker, and increasing our data analysis capabilities.

One thing I find particularly inspiring in my work with the LRA Crisis Tracker is when I am able to uncover something we call “Related Incidents.” As the name implies, this is when two different events relate to each other in some way. I see this most often with abductions – I’ve read some truly horrific reports about abductions, but it is so rewarding when I can check the box indicating that one of the abductees has escaped the LRA and is going home.