Public interest technologists know that it can be difficult to balance privacy with data collection. While this is a challenge when you’re dealing with run-of-the-mill data, the problem is amplified when it comes to data about marginalized and vulnerable populations and communities. Data can help lift up and support these populations, but it can also
Environmental justice’s formative document turns 30 this year, and like a fledging adult, the movement is finally putting down roots. The seeds of the movement emerged in October, 1991 at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, held in Washington, D.C. During that event, organizers released the Principles of Environmental Justice, which detail how
Everything we are and everything that happens to us moves through a thin blue layer of breathable air, just a few thousand feet thick, that encompasses the Earth. From afar, it’s easy to understand that every breath we inhale connects us to the planet and each other. That’s why the emissions that are creating air
Catherine Coleman Flowers is talking about something that we don’t hear about too often: waste and sanitation. Flowers, a 2020 MacArthur Genius grant recipient, is the founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, which seeks to address the root causes of poverty by seeking sustainable solutions. In her work she’s taking on a lack
I learned early that a path to equity starts in agriculture and the soil. My history with dirt is long and, in many ways, tied to centuries of knowledge borne both of necessity and practicality. Before she was part of the Women’s Army Corp. (WAC), my grandmother learned how to grow food from her sharecropper
Dr. Moya Bailey is an assistant professor of Africana Studies and the program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University. Her work focuses on marginalized groups’ use of digital media to promote social justice as acts of self-affirmation and health promotion, and she is interested in how race, gender, and sexuality are represented
“We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.” These words are by the indomitable race woman, Mary McLeod Bethune. A lion among men and women, she dedicated her life to building learning environments
If you had the opportunity to build a model or algorithm from the ground up, what is the first thing that comes to mind – methodology, outcomes, impact? Many people would say you must begin with data. Data is a good place to start, but much like technology, data is not neutral and can affect
It may seem like technology will speed processes and improve outcomes, but that isn’t always the case. Here’s why. In January 2009, we assumed we struck gold. After three years of experimentation we finally reaped real results in our efforts to spread public service innovations across cities. Billions of people around the world got subpar
As President Joe Biden’s transition team recently explained when reintroducing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, “as many as 1 in 3 women are subjected to physical violence, rape and/or stalking by a partner at some point in their lives. The rate is even higher for women of color, lesbian and bisexual women, and transgender people.” Finding a solution