Akina (Aki) Younge is Policy Director at the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry at UCLA

Inspired by a future of collective joy, Aki has pushed for policies and practices to use technology and data as tools to support organizing for racial justice while confronting the history of their use as tools for reinforcing systemic racism.

Her work spans many policy areas including school integration, housing, workers’ rights and the future of work, and more. She believes that policy making happens not just at the lobbying meeting and in legislative text, it happens in our daily interactions and conversation. Her experience in publishing the website automating.nyc with her Harvard Kennedy School graduate school classmates (Deepra Yusuf, Elyse Voegeli, and Jon Truong) and her communities of the Ethical Tech Collective and the Design Justice Network have been foundational for her approach to policy making related to technology and data.

Aki served previously as Director of Policy Innovation at Data for Black Lives.