The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) today announced the appointment of its newest cohort of Technology and Democracy Fellows — seven emerging leaders committed to using technology and digital tools to help strengthen our democratic institutions through citizen engagement, social empowerment, and government transparency and accessibility.
The center’s newest Technology and Democracy Fellows are:
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Nick Carter, Managing Director, 2020 Vision Ventures
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Shomik Dutta, Co-founder and Partner, Higher Ground Labs
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Daniel Marks, Digital Manager, Color of Change
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Laura Miller, Director of Digital Strategy, When We All Vote
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Ramya Raghavan, Head of Civic Engagement and News Outreach, Google
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Stephanie Valencia, Co-founder, EquisLabs
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Eric Wilson, Chief Digital Officer, America Rising
During their appointment, fellows will explore technology’s role in improving democratic governance by connecting the university community to the field of practice and helping Harvard Kennedy School students develop crucial technology skills. Fellows will also design and lead a series of hands-on workshops for HKS students on a broad range of technological skills and concepts designed to build connections between students and the worlds of technology, policy, and government.
Throughout the academic year, fellows will design, develop, or refine a substantive project that is salient to their professional field of work. Previous projects have included a case study of private sector civic engagement strategies, the development of cutting-edge tools to increase open data literacy and usage, and the creation of a digital toolkit to allow local election officials to better distribute nonpartisan election information in their communities.