The Lens announces the addition of Steve Myers to its staff as deputy managing editor and senior staff writer.

Myers will help guide The Lens’ development and digital strategy, ensuring that The Lens uses the latest tools and technology to conduct its public-interest journalism. Myers has experience in database analysis, environmental reporting and traditional follow-the-money watchdog work.

“Steve’s reporting and technological expertise will add depth and breadth to the award-winning work The Lens has produced in the past two years,” Managing Editor Steve Beatty said. “He’s well attuned to the nuances and trends in journalism.”

Myers has been at the Poynter Institute for the past five years, the last three as managing editor of Poynter Online. The organization is one of the country’s leading journalism training organizations. In addition to helping guide editorial strategy at Poynter, Myers has reported on media news and innovation and has been one of the voices for the site on Facebook and Twitter. He’s written about citizen journalism, emerging business models such as nonprofit news sites, real-time reporting via social media, data-oriented news apps, and fact-checking.

“For the last five years at Poynter, I’ve observed the upheaval in how journalism is practiced and funded,” Myers said. “Now I’m ready to get my hands dirty, helping The Lens produce high-impact investigative journalism that addresses the needs of the New Orleans community.”

Before arriving at Poynter, Myers spent 10 years at newspapers, including five years at the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala., where his local government accountability reporting resulted in three statewide awards in four years.

As a Katrina Media Fellow with the Open Society Institute in 2006 and 2007, he used GIS tools to reveal how poor FEMA flood maps exacerbated damage from hurricane storm surges.

He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame. He’s married to Rebecca Catalanello, a New Orleans native; they have one daughter, Aida Orleans.