Afua Bruce

Afua Bruce is a leading public interest technologist who has spent her career working at the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Her work has spanned the government, non-profit, private, and academic sectors. With Afua’s background in software engineering, data science, and artificial intelligence, combined with experience developing and deploying technology in and with communities, she incorporates an equity-based framework into her engagements.
Afua is currently the principal of the ANB Advisory Group LLC, a consulting firm that supports organizations developing, implementing, or funding responsible data and technology. The ANB Advisory Group works with philanthropic institutions, tech companies, and non-profits to change how technology is developed and used.

Previously, as the Chief Program Officer at DataKind, Afua led programmatic decisions and the 20,000-person volunteer community to provide data science and AI expertise to non-profits and government agencies worldwide. As the Executive Director of the White House’s National Science and Technology Council, Afua oversaw more than 100 working groups of expert Federal scientists and engineers to develop policies for cybersecurity, STEM education, natural resources, forensics, and more. She has also held a number of senior science technology positions including those with New America, the FBI, and IMB.

Afua is an adjunct professor of the Heinz College of Information Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, a Visiting Practitioner for Cornell Tech’s Public Interest Tech (PI-Tech) program, an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and an affiliate of the Tayarisha is The African Centre of Excellence for Digital Governance at the University of Witwatersrand-Johannesburg.

As an If/Then Ambassador, Afua engages in efforts to excite girls to consider STEM careers. She has partnered with GoldieBlox, appeared on CBS’s Mission Unstoppable TV show, and is featured in a number of museums around the country.

Afua has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Purdue University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Her newest book, The Tech That Comes Next: How Changemakers, Technologists, and Philanthropists can Build an Equitable World, describes how technology can advance equity.