Elaine Sedenberg works for the Strategic Advisor to the President, Global Affairs at Meta, and covers issues across Policy, Communications, and Governance. Previously at Meta, Elaine led global research insights and academic partnerships for Privacy and Data Policy. She is a returning Lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Information teaching Applied Behavioral Economics (2021; 2023). Elaine is an active Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and sits on the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) External Advisory Committee.
Elaine has a PhD from the Berkeley School of Information, where she completed her dissertation "Information-intensive innovation: the changing role of the private firm in the research ecosystem through the study of biosensed data." Her research challenges the theory of linear innovation, and explores how research strategy, practice, and data policies intersect within a modern information firm.
Elaine previously served as the co-director of the Center for Technology, Society & Policy (CTSP), and held a Science Policy Research Fellowship at the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI)—an FFRDC that supports the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as well as other federal agencies.
Elaine was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and received other grants and gifts to support her research. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin where she graduated with highest honors and a Dean's Honored Graduate distinction. Outside of work, Elaine enjoys putting her chemistry training to work in the kitchen, light painting with her Nikon, visiting friends scattered around the world, and rediscovering the joys of adventure RPGs from the 1990s/early 2000s. She volunteers with the Junior League of Washington.
