ACLU AI Summit, Civil Rights in a Digital Age

Summit Wrap-Up

Thank you for joining the ACLU AI Summit: Civil Rights in a Digital Age; on Thursday July 10, 2025.

Your participation is helping to shape a future where AI advances justice rather than undermines it. Use this page to continue the conversation, access resources, and take action.

You can watch the full AI Summit on our YouTube channel, and you can watch the recording of three featured panels below:

Capital for Change: AI & Philanthropy

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Role of Social Justice Organizations in AI Governance

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Racial Justice and AI: Tech Futures as the AI Race Accelerates

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Speakers

Terence Dougherty

Deputy Executive Director for Operations and General Counsel, ACLU

Terence Dougherty is the Deputy Executive Director for Operations and General Counsel of the ACLU. In this capacity, he oversees the operational functions and processes that support the ACLU’s work in furtherance of its mission. These include the finance, in-house legal, compliance/risk management, data governance & management, information technology & security, analytics, technology product, disability…

Terence Dougherty

Vilas Dhar

President and Trustee, Patrick J.McGovern Foundation

Vilas Dhar is a global expert on AI policy and the President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a $1.5 billion philanthropy leveraging AI to create a more equitable future. He advocates for an equity-based approach to designing technologies and policies that shape a thriving, sustainable world. Vilas serves as an advisor to global institutions…

Vilas Dhar

Deborah Archer

President, ACLU National

Deborah N. Archer is President of the ACLU, where she serves as Chair of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee, the two governing bodies responsible for policy development, financial oversight, and mission-alignment functions for the national organization. Deborah is a tenured professor and associate dean at New York University School of Law, and the…

Deborah Archer

Ijeoma Mbamalu

Chief Technology Officer, ACLU

Ijeoma Genevieve Mbamalu is the inaugural Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the ACLU, where she is responsible for defining strategies that allow the ACLU to operate its data systems, improve fundraising, accrue more supporters, and get its message out into the world. This includes developing new products and product lines along with maturing existing products…

Ijeoma Mbamalu

Marissa Gerchick

Data Science Manager, Algorithmic Justice Specialist, ACLU

she/her/hers

Marissa Gerchick is a Data Science Manager and Algorithmic Justice Specialist on the ACLU’s Technology Team, where her work focuses on the civil rights implications of automated systems, including supporting ACLU’s litigation, advocacy, and public education related to artificial intelligence used in various domains. Marissa also regularly publishes and presents original research on the impacts…

Marissa Gerchick

ReNika Moore

Director, ACLU Racial Justice Program

she/her

ReNika Moore is the Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program (RJP). She oversees the ACLU’s racial justice litigation and advocacy. RJP fights for racial justice on several fronts including in education, housing, the economy, and the criminal justice system. ReNika has provided expert testimony to legislative bodies and federal agencies on issues ranging from…

ReNika Moore

Cody Venzke

Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU National Political Advocacy Division

Cody Venzke is a Senior Policy Counsel in the ACLU's National Political Advocacy Department, working on issues in surveillance, privacy, and technology. Cody focuses on comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, safe and nondiscriminatory AI, children's privacy, and civic uses of data. He is an author of a treatise published by LexisNexis on education data and student…

Cody Venzke

Nathan Freed Wessler

Deputy Director, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

Nathan Freed Wessler (@NateWessler) is a deputy director with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where he focuses on litigation and advocacy around surveillance and privacy issues, including government searches of electronic devices, requests for sensitive data held by third parties, and use of surveillance technologies. In 2017, he argued Carpenter v. United States…

Nathan Freed Wessler

Nabiha Syed

Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation

Nabiha Syed is Executive Director of Mozilla Foundation, the global nonprofit that does everything from championing trustworthy AI to advocating for a more open, equitable internet. Formerly, Nabiha was the CEO of The Markup, an award-winning journalism non-profit that challenges technology to serve the public good. Under her leadership, The Markup’s unique approach was referenced…

Nabiha Syed

Emilia Javorsky

Director of the Futures Program, The Future of Life Institute

Emilia Javorsky is the Director of the Futures Program at The Future of Life Institute, leading work on imagining and architecting positive futures with technology. By training she's a physician-scientist and entrepreneur working on the invention, development, and translation of medical technologies. She's also a scientist and mentor at the Wyss Institute at Harvard. She…

Emilia Javorsky

Amanda Lenaghan

Social Impact Advisor

Amanda Lenaghan is a strategic advisor at the intersection of AI for Good, emerging tech, and social impact. She most recently led social impact and public affairs at Cruise, advancing equity and accessibility in autonomous vehicles. Previously, she directed volunteerism and philanthropy at Charles Schwab and was a key leader at Taproot Foundation. Amanda brings…

Amanda Lenaghan

Lili Gangas

Chief Technology Community Officer, Kapor Foundation

Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer at the Kapor Foundation, an operating foundation at the intersection of technology and racial justice, providing research and thought leadership, operating programs, supporting strategic partnerships and investments to increase diversity across the tech ecosystem--from K-12 education through entrepreneurship and venture capital. She co-leads the Kapor Center’s Equitable…

Lili Gangas

Ranya Ahmed

Head of Analytics, ACLU

Bringing a decade of experience in the nonprofit and academic sectors, Dr. Ranya Ahmed is a seasoned social justice advocate with profound expertise in leveraging data for advocacy campaigns and organizational improvement. Ranya currently serves at the Head of Analytics at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). At the ACLU, she oversees strategic and technical…

Ranya Ahmed

Nati G

Senior Software Engineer, ACLU

(he/him)

Nati is a Senior Software Engineer on the ACLU’s Technology Team where he focuses on building infrastructure, improving developer productivity and finding unique solutions to the technical problems that the ACLU faces. Prior to working at the ACLU, Nati worked in similar devops and cybersecurity roles at startups in the tech industry and as a…

Nati G

Damini Satija

Interim Director, Amnesty Tech, Amnesty International

Damini Satija is a technology, human rights and public policy expert. She is currently the Interim Director of Amnesty Tech - a 30-person, multi-disciplinary programme working on technology and human rights issues at Amnesty International. She originally joined Amnesty to set up the Algorithmic Accountability Lab to investigative and expose the use of Artificial Intelligence…

Damini Satija

Yacine Jernite

Head of Machine Learning and Society, Hugging Face

Yacine Jernite is Head of Machine Learning and Society at Hugging Face where they lead a multidisciplinary team working on the social and regulatory context of Machine Learning systems, models, and datasets. They have worked on several aspects of data curation, documentation, and governance, including by coordinating data and multidisciplinary research efforts within the BigScience…

Yacine Jernite

AJ Hikes

Deputy Executive Director for Strategy & Culture, ACLU

they/them

AJ Hikes (they/them) is a social justice advocate, community organizer, TED Talk Speaker, and unapologetically queer and Black. As Deputy Executive Director for Strategy & Culture, AJ serves as chief counselor and principal partner to the executive director, overseeing the critical functions of organization strategic planning and programmatic priority setting. In this capacity, AJ also…

AJ Hikes