I am a tech policy expert specializing in cybersecurity, privacy, and digital identity. I’m an Assistant Professor of Media Studies and Data Science (joint appointment) at the University of Virginia (UVA). At UVA, I teach courses on data ethics, technology regulation, and media policy.
My research interests include data governance in development and humanitarian contexts, cyber policy, critical infrastructure protection, surveillance, and biometrics. I am particularly interested in exploring these topics across the Global South.
My most recent publications include a chapter on ‘connectivity as aid’ with the UN Refugee Agency’s John Warnes for the Handbook on Data Protection in Humanitarian Action (Cambridge University Press) and a collaborative forum on digitization and sovereignty in humanitarian space. I am also a co-editor of a forthcoming special issue on cybersecurity regulation in the European Union.
Prior to joining UVA, I was based at Maastricht University’s European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity; from 2018-2023, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the European Research Council-funded Global Data Justice project at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society in the Netherlands. Before returning to academia, I developed a tech policy career. I was a Vice President of Cyber Policy at JPMorgan Chase in New York from 2015-2018. Before that I worked in tech policy roles at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Vodafone Group, and elsewhere. I have also lectured internationally including at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Cornell Tech, NYU Stern, and Fundação Getulio Vargas.
In recent years I have advised the UN Refugee Agency on digital connectivity topics, the GSMA Mobile for Development initiative on its data ethics strategy, and the World Bank on data governance in foundational identity programs. I have also led an international project on data protection regulatory convergence for the European Commission.
I have a PhD in Information Systems and Innovation from the LSE, where I studied biometrics.
