Robert L. Strayer is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy. In this capacity, he leads development of international cybersecurity, Internet, data, and privacy policy and related negotiations with foreign governments. He has led dozens of bilateral and multilateral dialogues with foreign governments’ foreign affairs and communications ministries. Mr. Strayer was named by the President, as an Ambassador, to lead the 90-plus person U.S. delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2018, and served as vice-chair of the conference. He managed the successful election of first U.S. citizen to an ITU senior management position in more than two decades. The United States also achieved successful, pro-innovation results on resolutions related to cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

Dr. Jessica Ashooh is Director of Policy for Reddit. In this capacity, she oversees all content, product, advertising, and public policy for the company, as well as global government relations. Ashooh comes to Reddit from a previous career in international affairs focused on the Middle East. From 2015 to 2017, she served as Deputy Director for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley’s bipartisan Middle East Strategy Task Force at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. From 2011 to 2015, Ashooh worked as a senior analyst in the UAE Foreign Ministry’s Policy Planning Department in Abu Dhabi. She focused especially on the crisis in Syria, working closely with the UAE Special Envoy for Syria and the Syrian political opposition to support the UN-led peace process in Geneva. Ashooh also spent time in Erbil, Iraq in 2010 working as a consultant to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Minister of Planning. Ashooh holds a doctorate in international relations from Oxford (St. Antony’s College), which she attended as a Marshall Scholar. She did her undergraduate studies at Brown University, including time abroad at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and the Bourguiba Language Institute in Tunisia.

Jeff Brueggeman is Vice President-Global Public Policy for AT&T, responsible for developing and advocating AT&T’s global public policy positions on privacy, cybersecurity and internet policy issues. In addition, he leads AT&T’s engagement with various privacy and internet policy organizations. Mr Brueggeman supports AT&T’s business in the operation of its global network and development of emerging technologies, including Internet of Things and cloud computing services. Prior to assuming his current rule, Mr Brueggeman helped manage AT&T’s privacy policies and coordinate the implementation of data privacy and security programmes across the company. He has participated extensively in international internet policy events and organizations, and served on the Internet Governance Forum’s Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group. Before joining AT&T in 2001, Mr Brueggeman was an attorney in private practice, specialising in communications law. He holds a JD from the University of Virginia and a BA in Journalism from the University of Minnesota.

Neil Chilson is a Senior Research Fellow for Technology and Innovation at the Charles Koch Institute. In this position, he will help spearhead the Institute’s continued efforts to foster an environment that encourages innovation and the individual and societal progress it makes possible.

Mr. Chilson was appointed the Federal Trade Commision’s (FTC) acting chief technologist in July 2017. His work focused on understanding the economics of privacy, convening a workshop on informational injury, and establishing the FTC’s Blockchain Working Group, among other things. Prior to his appointment, he was an advisor to then-Acting FTC Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In both roles he advised Chairman Ohlhausen and worked with Commission staff on nearly every major technology-related case, report, workshop, or other proceeding since January 2014, when he joined her office. Before he joined the FTC, Mr. Chilson practiced telecommunications law at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP.

Mr. Chilson holds a law degree from the George Washington University Law School, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harding University.

Julie E. Cohen is the Mark Claster Mamolen Professor of Law and Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center. She teaches and writes about surveillance, privacy and data protection, intellectual property, information platforms, and the ways that networked information and communication technologies are reshaping legal institutions. She is the author of Between Truth and Power: The Legal Constructions of Informational Capitalism (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2019); Configuring the Networked Self: Law, Code and the Play of Everyday Practice (Yale University Press, 2012), which won the 2013 Association of Internet Researchers Book Award and was shortlisted for the Surveillance & Society Journal’s 2013 Book Prize; and numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Jessica Fjeld is a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic. She works in diverse areas including intellectual property, media and entertainment (particularly public media), freedom of expression, and law and policy relating to government and nonprofit entities. Before joining the Clinic, Jessica worked in Business & Legal Affairs for WGBH Educational Foundation, and as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP focused in corporate transactions. She received a JD from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and Managing Editor of the Journal of Law and the Arts; an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts; and a BA from Columbia University.

Jim Halpert advises clients regarding compliance and risk management strategies for transactions relating to transnational, federal and state security and privacy regulations, industry best practices and self-regulatory initiatives, and has represented clients in major security and privacy cases in the federal courts and before the Federal Trade Commission. Jim represents companies on a broad range of data management issues, including cyber and data security, cloud agreements, managing privacy class action risks, trans-national data flows, navigating difficult conflicts between foreign privacy laws and US compliance obligations, regulation of advertising and marketing practices, healthcare and financial privacy, children's and student privacy, privacy regulation of communications media, employee data, due diligence in sales of corporate assets, records management and responses to government surveillance requests. He has extensive experience with European, Asian and Latin American privacy regimes, and regularly leads teams across DLA Piper's global network advising on complex international security and privacy matters.

Ambassador Karen Kornbluh is senior fellow and director of German Marshall Fund’s Digital Innovation Democracy Initiative, working to shape a future where technology strengthens rather than undermines democratic values. This program contends with the challenge of online disinformation as well as other technology policy issues including 21st century jobs and innovation, democratic implications of frontier technologies, and cyber dimensions of national security. In addition, it will develop a framework for global transatlantic leadership on technology policy. A leading voice at the intersection of digital and economic policy, technology, and foreign affairs, Kornbluh comes to GMF from the Council on Foreign Relations, where she was senior fellow for digital policy. Kornbluh served as policy director to Barack Obama in the US Senate and was the Obama administration’s ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2009-12. In this role she spearheaded development of the first global Internet Policymaking Principle and launched both the OECD's Gender Initiative and the Middle East-North Africa Women's Business Forum. In addition to her extensive government service, Kornbluh served as executive vice president for external affairs at data company Nielsen. At strategy firm Telesis, she consulted to Fortune 500 manufacturing companies. She began her career as an economist at forecasting firm Townsend-Greenspan. Kornbluh was a visiting fellow at the Center for American Policy and a Markle Fellow and she served on the U.S. Federal Economic and Statistics Advisory Council; was a senior advisor to McKinsey on technology, a member of the World Economic Forum’s AI, IoT and Future of Trust Network, and co-chair of the Chamber of Commerce’s Digital Connect forum. Kornbluh’s writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly, Democracy, and the Harvard Law and Policy Review .

Jeff Kosseff is an assistant professor of cybersecurity law in the United States Naval Academy’s Cyber Science Department. His latest book, The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet, a history of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, will be published in Spring 2019 by Cornell University Press. He also is the author of Cybersecurity Law, a textbook and treatise published by Wiley in 2017, with a second edition forthcoming in 2019. His articles have appeared in Iowa Law Review, Wake Forest Law Review, Computer Law & Security Review, and other law reviews and technology law journals. A full list of his publications is available at jeffkosseff.com.

Jeff practiced cybersecurity, privacy, and First Amendment law at Covington & Burling, and clerked for Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Before becoming a lawyer, he was a technology and political journalist for The Oregonian and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and recipient of the George Polk Award for national reporting.

He received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. and M.P.P. from the University of Michigan.

Emma Llansó is the Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, which works to promote law and policy that support users’ free expression rights in the United States and around the world. Emma leads CDT’s work in advancing speech-protective policies, which include legislative advocacy and amicus activity in the U.S. aimed at ensuring that online expression receives the highest level of protection under the First Amendment. Recognizing the crucial role played by Internet intermediaries in facilitating individuals’ expression, she works to preserve strong intermediary liability protections in the U.S. and to advance these key policies abroad.

Emma also leads the Free Expression Project’s work in developing content policy best practices with Internet content platforms and advocating for user-empowerment tools and other alternatives to government regulation of online speech. The Project’s work spans many subjects, including online child safety and children’s privacy, human trafficking, privacy and online reputation issues, counter-terrorism and “radicalizing” content, and online harassment. Emma is also a member of the Freedom Online Coalition’s Working Group on Privacy and Transparency Online, which is developing best practices for transparency reporting by governments and companies regarding government demands to Internet companies for content removal and access to user data. Emma works with CDT’s Global Internet Policy & Human Rights Project on advancing policies that promote free expression in global fora; she also works with the Global project in advocating for decentralized, multistakeholder approaches to Internet governance.

Emma earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Emma joined CDT in 2009 as the Bruce J. Ennis First Amendment Fellow; her fellowship project focused on legal and policy advocacy in support of minors’ First Amendment rights in the US. She is a member of the New York State Bar.

As executive vice president and chief security officer (CSO), Danny McPherson is responsible for all aspects of Verisign’s information systems and services, as well as information and corporate security. Additionally, he represents Verisign in key forums focused on critical infrastructure, engineering, research, security, and online trust. With over 20 years of experience in the internet network operations, security, and telecommunications industries, McPherson brings tremendous technical leadership and operational expertise to the company. Prior to joining Verisign, McPherson was vice president and CSO at Arbor Networks, where he developed solutions to detect and mitigate cyberattacks. Before that, he held technical leadership positions in architecture, engineering and operations with Amber Networks, Qwest Communications, Genuity, MCI Communications, and the U.S. Army Signal Corps. McPherson has actively participated in internet operations and standardization since the early 1990s. He is currently a member of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and has served on the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG), the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Subcommittee, as well as the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) Board of Directors. He has chaired an array of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other working groups and committees in these and related forums. McPherson is an active contributor in the network and security operations and research communities and has authored several books, numerous internet protocol standards, network and security research papers, and other publications.

Dan has been involved with Tech Goes Home since 2002 and on staff since the summer of 2010. After spending several years as a Legislative Aide to a U.S. Congressman in Washington, DC, he returned to Boston as the Technology Director at Fenway High School. In 2006, he was hired by the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester to help implement the largest middle school 1:1 laptop initiative in New England. In 2010, Dan joined TGH as Program Director and became Co-Executive Director in 2014. In the time that Dan has been involved with TGH, the organization has gone from serving more than 1,000 people per year to now graduating than 5,000 learners in 2018. Nothing is more important to Dan than his two adorable little girls (and the Sox winning the WS in 2004).

Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner at Baker Botts in Washington, DC. Previously, Maureen led the Federal Trade Commission as Acting Chairman and Commissioner. She directed all aspects of the FTC's antitrust work, including merger review and conduct enforcement, and steered all FTC consumer protection enforcement, with a particular emphasis on privacy and technology issues. A thought leader, Maureen has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, IP, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications and has testified over a dozen times before the U.S. Congress. Maureen has relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad, with a particular emphasis on Europe and China. She has received numerous awards, including the FTC's Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award. Prior to her role as Commissioner, Maureen led the FTC's Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the areas of broadband and Internet.

Patricia Paoletta is a partner with the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP, where she specializes in telecommunications and technology policy, with a focus on spectrum and international market access. Ms. Paoletta provides advice on regulatory policy to clients before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Administration and the International Telecommunication Union. Her clients include providers of mobile broadband and Internet of Things (IoT), including drones and connected cars, satellite services and other international telecommunications. Ms. Paoletta has accrued considerable experience with telecommunications trade and policy in the public sector. She was senior advisor to the International Bureau Chief and Office Director at the Federal Communications Commission. Ms. Paoletta subsequently served as Director of Telecommunications Trade Policy in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, where she worked on the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Basic Telecommunications Agreement, NAFTA implementation, and bilateral agreements with China, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea. After USTR, Ms. Paoletta served as Majority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She then moved to Level 3 Communications, as Vice President, Government Relations. Ms. Paoletta, who was recently recognized as a “Best Lawyer”, is a member of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), the USTR Alumni Association, Washington International Trade Association, and Women in Technology. Ms. Paoletta has been on the Board of Advisors for the Inter-American Dialogue’s Latin America Telecom Advisor, Co-Chair of the American Bar Association International Communications Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Technology Policy Committee. She has served as a delegate to numerous meetings of the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) and CITEL (the Committee on International Telecommunications at the Organization of American States) PCC-II. Ms. Paoletta has served as the Chair of the FCC’s National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Steering Committee and as a Board Member for the Voice on the Net Coalition.

Gabrielle Rejouis is a Law Fellow at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. She researches data practices' disproportionate harm on marginalized communities and the historic and modern surveillance of low-income and working communities. Gabrielle received her J.D. from Georgetown Law in 2018 with a Certificate in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies. During law school, she interned at the Federal Communications Commission in the Media Bureau. Gabrielle has a B.A. in history from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where she was an Albert Dorman Honors Scholar.

Nilmini Rubin is a vice president at TetraTech. She leads engineering and consulting projects to increase energy and internet access in developing countries. Previously, Nilmini served as the Senior Advisor for Global Economic Competitiveness at the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee where she directed technology, trade, finance and energy policy. On behalf of Chairman Royce, Nilmini spearheaded passage by the House of Representatives the Digital Global Access Policy Act of 2016 to promote internet access in developing countries. She drove unanimous passage of a law to increase access to electricity in Africa that serves as the framework for the United States’ Power Africa initiative. Prior to this position, she advocated on cybersecurity policy for the Information Technology Industry Council, led international economics policy for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and served as the Director for International Finance at the National Security Council of the White House.

Nilmini’s work has been highlighted in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Politico, Yahoo! and numerous international publications. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a “40 Under 40” Leader in International Development by Devex, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was featured on HGTV’s “Curb Appeal” and appeared briefly on Netflix’s “House of Cards”. Nilmini is the mother of three young girls and co-wrote a book with her oldest daughter entitled “How Carrots Became Orange.”

As Vice President and General Counsel, Carl analyzes tech-related legislative and regulatory initiatives relevant to online companies. He monitors and analyzes Federal and state legislation including online taxation and privacy issues. Carl is also an adjunct professor of privacy law at the George Mason Antonin Scalia Law School.

Carl works at the NTIA Privacy Multi-Stakeholder process, speaks on panels about burdens to e-commerce, and testifies before state legislatures on proposed legislation. Recently, Carl met with FTC Commissioners on new COPPA regulations, presented on mobile-app privacy at the IAPP Annual Conference, and worked with the Maryland Child Privacy Taskforce.

Before joining NetChoice, Carl was an intellectual property attorney at the lawfirm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon where he advised clients on privacy, Internet, e-commerce, and contractual matters. He also worked at the lawfirms of Venable and Arnold & Porter.

Carl also worked on copyright, trademark, and anti-piracy both for Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

Before law school, Carl worked at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the staff of Commissioner Orson Swindle, where he helped create and implement the FTC’s Consumer Information Security Outreach Plan and assisted the White House in establishing the National Strategy for Cyber Security.

Carl obtained his J.D. and Communications Law Certificate from the Catholic University of America, magna cum laude, and Carl obtained his B.A. in Economics, Managerial Studies, and Policy Studies from Rice University. Carl is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC and is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US)

Trinity Thorpe-Lubneuski serves as the Senior Director of Strategic Communications and Research for the Comcast Corporation’s Internet Essentials program. She is responsible for building innovative narratives for Comcast’s signature community impact initiative. Additionally, Trinity oversees research exploring the educational, economic, health, and social outcomes associated with internet adoption and use across multiple ethnicities and cultures. Previously, Trinity was the associate director for the School District of Philadelphia’s Office of Accountability and Assessment, where she was recognized for improving communications across city departments. Prior to that, Trinity was a research associate with Pew Charitable Trusts, where she collaborated on federal legislation and authored numerous reports related to child welfare and education. Trinity holds a B.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University, and Master of Science in Social Policy and Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee is a fellow in the program’s Center for Technology Innovation and a contributor to TechTank. She comes to Brookings from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a national non-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecommunications, and broadband industries, where she served as vice president and chief research and policy officer. In this role, she led the design and implementation of their research, policy, and advocacy agendas. Her most recent White Papers at MMTC included, “A Lifeline to High-Speed Internet Access: An Economic Analysis of Administrative Costs and the Impact on Consumers” (March 2016), “Guarding Against Data Discrimination in the Internet of Everything” (September 2015), “Refocusing Broadband Policy: The New Opportunity Agenda for People of Color” (November 2013).
Prior to joining MMTC, Dr. Turner-Lee was vice president and the first director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the nation’s leading think tank on issues related to African Americans and other people of color. In this role, she led the technology research agenda that was focused on advancing digital equity and inclusion for historically disadvantaged populations. Her most notable work was her development of the first national minority broadband adoption study in 2009 that was later cited in the congressionally mandated Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan. Her other publications there included, “Minorities, Mobile Broadband, and the Management of Chronic Diseases” (April 2012), co-authored with Dr. Brian Smedley and Joseph Miller; “Place Matters: The Debate over Broadband Availability” (2011); and, “Increasing Civic Engagement in the Digital Age” (2010) which was published by the Federal Communications Commission Law Journal.

In addition to these and other publications, Dr. Turner-Lee has been cited in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Communications Daily, Multichannel News, Washington Informer, among other print and online publications. She is also a widely sought expert and speaker on issues related to communications policies in media and at conferences, and she has testified before Congress. Dr. Turner-Lee was a two-time Digital Research Program Scholar as part of Time Warner Cable’s Cable Research Program in Communications and recipient of countless recognitions, including the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition (2015) and one of the Most Inspiring Women in Media from the Alliance of Women in Media (2014).

At the Center for Technology Innovation, Dr. Turner-Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Dr. Turner-Lee’s research also explores global and domestic broadband deployment, regulatory, and internet governance issues. She is also an expert on the intersection of race, wealth, and technology within the context of civic engagement, criminal justice, and economic development.

Dr. Turner-Lee graduated from Colgate University magna cum laude and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. She also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dr. Turner-Lee is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State University. She also serves on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP). In her free time, Dr. Turner-Lee is active on the boards of various nonprofit organizations, including the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), the Washington Literacy Center, and STEM4US, which is committed to advancing diversity in the technology fields.