Dr. Elisabeth Sylvan’s lifelong interest is in sociotechnical systems that support creativity, shared knowledge, and learning. Thematically, her work focuses on emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality, particularly as these intersect with data empowerment, technological ethics, digital identity, and the formal and informal education sector and edtech sectors.
Currently she serves as Senior Fellow at ITS Rio, Visiting Lecturer in the School of Engineering at Brown University, Lecturer in the School of Politics and Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and Senior Director at the Secretariat of the Global Network of Internet & Society Research Centers (NoC). At Brown she works on design engineering education and museum integration efforts. With the NoC and ITS Rio, she works on advising governments and other initiatives related to AI's social impacts and leads the NoC Museum Project. At TUM she teaches “Critical Thinking in the Time of Generative AI” and is a member of the Global Tech Policy Practice, an advisor to the AIEdtech Ethics project, and an expert in the Frontiers in Digital Child Safety Working Group.
From 2019-2024, Dr. Sylvan served in executive leadership at BKC, where her portfolio included leading in-person and hybrid educational programs including the BKC Research Sprints (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/research-sprints) the Summer Institute (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/summer-institute) and other student engagement initiatives, designing dialogue and co-creation spaces for leading scholars, technologists, and decision-makers in the public and private sectors, developing technology ethics programs, and building capacity for technology ethics policy and practice across the globe. She co-lead the Policy Practice (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/programs/bkc-policy-practice-artificial-intelligence) and the Co-designing Generative Futures (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/projects/co-designing-generative-futures) initiative and represented BKC with both the Global Network of Internet & Society Research Centers (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/research/network_of_centers) and the International Network for Digital Self Determination (link:https://cyber.harvard.edu/projects/international-digital-self-determination-network). She advised governments and worked in Youth and Media.
Before joining BKC, Dr. Sylvan worked for herself and for multiple nonprofits. She was the Vice President of Education at The Tech Interactive in Silicon Valley, Maker in Residence at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College, Fellow and Director of Learning and Community at Manylabs and a Researcher Scientist and Project Director at the education R&D nonprofit, TERC.
Dr. Sylvan's work has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Mercator Foundation, and the Research Council of Norway, among others. She is a member of the World Economic Forum Digital Identity Initiative Impact Working Group, a member of the OECD Expert Stakeholders on Digital Identity Group, an associate editor of the Critical AI journal, and a reviewer for multiple conferences including Interaction Design for Children (IDC), International Conference on the Learning Sciences, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Creativity & Cognition, Internet Research (IR) conference, Computer Human Interaction (CHI), among others. She was also a fellow with International Society for Design and Development in Education (2011) and served on the advisory boards of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College, zSpace, and the Stanford d-school Build Lab. She is a longstanding member of BKC's Tech through Spec working group.
Dr. Sylvan’s M.S. and Ph.D. are from the MIT Media Lab where her work addressed how sociotechnical systems support shared knowledge and group action. There, Dr. Sylvan received fellowships from Highlands and Islands (of Scotland) (2005-2006) and Media Lab Europe (2003-2004.)
