LAUREN M. CHAMBERS
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Hello!

I am a fifth-year PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information, where I work with Professor Deirdre Mulligan to study how sociopolitical advocates respond to and employ technological and algorithmic tools. I am grateful that my work has been enriched by the Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies Fellowship and a summer internship with the Center for Democracy and Technology, and supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Ford Predoctoral Fellowship.

If you'd like to learn more, I invite you to read about my recent projects here or listen to a podcast that I was recently a guest on where I discuss my work on 'advocacy technologists':

Previously, I was the staff technologist at the ACLU of Massachusetts in Boston, where I worked on the Technology for Liberty Project directed by Kade Crockford. My role included exploring and visualizing government data in order to inform citizens about the effects of legislation and political leadership, managing our Data for Justice site, and generally supporting ACLUM campaigns that operate at the intersection of technology and civil liberties. I was also an affiliate of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.

Before joining the ACLU, I was a Research and Instrument Analyst for the J.W. Space Telescope mission at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally from Hampton, VA, I received my B.S. from Yale in 2017, where I double-majored in astrophysics and African American studies.

My personal experience leaving astronomy and finding a career path applying quantitative analytic methods to social problems was far from straightforward -- for those interested in pursuing similar questions, I maintain a webpage of organizations, programs, and thinkers who work at the convergence of data/tech/computation and society/justice/ethics.

I am immensely passionate about working towards equity and inclusion in all of the spaces that I occupy (and I do intend the original meaning of those terms, rather than the defanged meaning they often take on in modern professional settings).

Please feel welcome to contact me with any questions or inquiries!

P.S. Two of my favorite things are Wikipedia (hmm?) and Google Maps. I actively curate four maps with my recommendations for where to eat and what to do in the Bay Area, Boston, Baltimore, and NYC.

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  • 01/2026  

    Not academic news, but I just completed my 200-hour yoga teacher training on Isla Mujeres, Mexico and I’m very happy about it!

  • 01/2026  

    A new op-ed in The Hill compares Trump’s newly-announced Tech Force to the government tech programs he already dismantled, including USDS and 18F.

  • 11/2025  

    My first op-ed, describing the importance of advocacy technologists in nonprofit organizations, was published by Local News Matters!

  • 11/2025  

    Bon dia! I’m in Barcelona for my first-ever Mozilla Festival, presenting a talk titled “Executing a Public Interest Tech Research Agenda: Insights from Social Science” (see my slides) and reeeeally enjoying the tempranillo.

  • 10/2025  

    More public writing to come! Excited be part of the 2025 cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship on Technology in the Public Interest - a program from The OpEd Project and the MacArthur Foundation.

  • 10/2025  

    Over the moon to learn my new (and my first!) CSCW paper received an Impact Recognition.

  • 10/2025  

    Hallo! Thrilled to be in Norway to present my new paper at ACM CSCW: “Beyond Big Tech: Advocacy Technologists within Mission-Driven Civil Society Organizations”. (I’ve also put together a friendly one-page infographic about it.)

  • 09/2025  

    Deeply enjoyed organizing and moderating two fascinating panels on “Sociotechnical Perspectives in Public Interest Technology” at the 4S Conference in Seattle.

  • 08/2025  

    I was selected as a Chancellor’s Public Fellow in the Berkeley American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program to support Prof. Diag Davenport’s Fall 2025 course, “Building Data Products for Public Impact”.

  • 08/2025  

    I passed my qualifying exams and I’m officially a candidate. Huzzah!