Since our founding in 2015, we’ve strived to place technologists in Capitol Hill to positively impact the future of tech policy. In the past year, our program has experienced tremendous growth. We’ve tripled our Congressional Innovation Scholars Program to bring more early-career technologists to Congress, created the Congressional Digital Service Sprint Fellowship. We’ve successfully worked with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress to improve Congress’ digital infrastructure, and began a jobs newsletter to connect technologists with policy opportunities. We are committed to including technologists in every step of the policymaking process and bringing more people into public interest technology.
This year’s applicant pool was the strongest yet and demonstrated the passion of technologists to help bridge the gap between technology and policy. We’re so excited to welcome our 2021 class of Congressional Innovation Fellows to Washington!
Geoffrey Cain is a technology journalist and foreign correspondent who has covered Asia, the Middle East, Russia, Europe, and Silicon Valley for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and other media outlets. His first book, Samsung Rising: The Inside Story of the South Korean Giant That Set Out to Beat Apple and Conquer Tech, was longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year award in 2020. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
B Cavello is a technology and facilitation expert. Most recently, B was Program Lead for the Partnership on AI, focusing on labor and economic implications of AI development. B also co-founded a technology education non-profit, delivered the most-backed Kickstarter of all time, led C-suite engagement at IBM Watson, and served as an MIT-Harvard Assembly Artificial Ethics and Governance Fellow.
Dr. Celeste Chamberlain is the first African-American woman to graduate with a doctorate from Jacksonville State University and a professor of cybersecurity with 20 years of experience in the federal government as a cybersecurity SME. In her spare time, she advocates for STEM learning among vulnerable populations such as those with an autism spectrum disorder.
Ellie Sakhaee is a Computer Scientist with expertise in Machine Learning and AI. She holds a Ph.D. and two Master's degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Throughout her career, Ellie has built novel AI solutions for various application domains, led engineering teams, taught university courses, and has published in academic and non-academic venues. Ellie is keenly interested in tech for social good and equitable implementation of technology in society.
Hakan Seyalıoğlu is a former Technical Lead Manager at Google, where he managed teams building products for over a billion users. He holds a Ph.D. in Cryptography from UCLA, has deployed large-scale machine learning applications, and launched mobile applications for emerging markets. He is also a co-founder at Thorny Games, a publishing company that explores the intersection of language, culture, and identity through play.
Mike Wacker is a software engineer who has previously worked at Microsoft and Google. He is also a fellow for the Lincoln Network's 2020 Policy Hackers cohort, and he has written op-eds on tech policy for a number of publications, including The Hill. He is finishing up a MCS from Arizona State University and holds a BS from Cornell University.