FALL 2025 Research Group
The Fall 2025 CAIDP Team is comprised of
- The Policy Group (PG) - Global AI Policy
- The Legal Group (LG) - US AI Law and Policy
- Teaching Fellows (TF) - Manage the AI Policy Clinic
- Team Leaders (TL) - Coordinate the AI Research Group Teams
- The Research Group (RG) - Conduct AI policy research, writing, and analysis
Information about the members of our extraordinary team is available below.
Merve Hickok
CAIDP President
CAIDP Policy Director
Policy Group (PG) Director
Marc Rotenberg
CAIDP Executive Director
CAIDP Founder
Christabel Randolph
CAIDP Associate Director
Legal Group (LG) Coordinator
Dr. Grace Thomson
Research Group (RG, TL, TF) Coordinator
Julian Theseira
Policy Group (PG) Director
Merve Hickok, CAIDP President and Policy Director
Merve is the President and Policy Director at Center for AI & Digital Policy. Merve is a policy expert, with testimony to the US Congress, State of California, New York City and Detroit City councils. She holds policy expert positions at UNESCO Experts without Borders, the Council of Europe, and OECD AI. She is a Council on Foreign Relations – Hitachi Fellow, with research on US-Japan AI policy and governance. Her contributions and perspective have featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg, Wired, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Politico, Protocol, The Economist and MIT Technology Review. Merve authored the book ‘From Trustworthy AI Principles to Public Procurement Practices’ - first book to provide an in-depth analysis of the public procurement of AI systems.
Merve Hickok is the founder of AIethicist. Her work focuses on impact of AI systems on individuals and society - particularly the impact on fundamental rights, democratic values, and social justice. At University of Michigan, she is the data ethics lecturer at School of Information, the Responsible Data and AI Advisor at Michigan Institute for Data, AI and Society, and an affiliated faculty at Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy (Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program).
Merve also works with several non-profit organizations globally to advance both the academic and professional research in this field for underrepresented groups. She has been recognized by a number of organizations - most recently with Lifetime Achievement Award - Women in AI of the Year - 2023, as Runner-up for Responsible AI Leader of the Year - 2022 (Women in AI) and as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ – 2021.
Marc Rotenberg, CAIDP
Executive Director and Founder
Marc Rotenberg is Executive Director and Founder of the Center for AI and Digital Policy. He is a leading global expert in data protection, open government, and AI policy. He has served on many international advisory panels, including the OECD AI Group of Experts. Marc helped draft the Universal Guidelines for AI, a widely endorsed human rights framework for the governance of Artificial Intelligence. Marc is the co-editor of The AI Policy Sourcebook (CAIDP 2025) and the AI and Democratic Values Index (CAIDP 2025). Marc is also the coauthor of several textbooks including Privacy and Society (West Academic 2016). He teaches privacy law and the GDPR at Georgetown Law and AI at Georgetown University. Marc has spoken frequently before the US Congress, the European Parliament, the OECD, UNESCO, judicial conferences, and international organizations. Marc has directed international comparative law studies on Privacy and Human Rights, Cryptography and Liberty, and Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values. Marc publishes widely in academic journals. Marc is a graduate of Harvard College, Stanford Law School, and Georgetown Law. He is an elected member of the American Bar Foundation, the American Law Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the European Law Institute.
CAIDP Policy Group (PG) - Fall 2025
Policy Group Coordinator
Julian Theseira
Julian Theseira coordinates the CAIDP Policy Group, managing workflows and reviewing AI policy submissions to countries around the world. Julian has been involved with CAIDP since September 2022. Julian also coordinates the Climate Action Network's (CAN) Global Stocktake (GST) Working Group, coordinating global environmental civil society organisations' submissions to the GST, the evaluation mechanism of the Paris Agreement, and leading engagements with country parties to the Paris Agreement. As a former management consultant with Deloitte, Julian worked with clients, including Fortune Global 500 companies, to enable their business continuity and success in an era of technological and other disruptions. Julian managed global social media campaigns and wrote multiple diplomatic reports on various multilateral meetings during previous experiences with international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland. Julian was an Erasmus Mundus scholar at Charles University, Czechia, and Jagiellonian University, Poland, and had graduated Phi Beta Kappa with High Honours from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, USA, where he was a Freeman Asian Scholar.
CAIDP Legal Group (LG) - Fall 2025
Legal Group Coordinator
Christabel Randolph (Bangladesh, Georgetown Law)
Christabel is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. She holds an Advanced Certification in AI Policy from CAIDP. She has experience working across South-Asia and the Middle-East with multinational corporations, the WHO, IDLO and in private practice. She completed her LL.M in Technology Law & Policy as a merit scholar from Georgetown University Law Center. She also completed a masters in law & economics as an Erasmus Mundus scholar. Christabel commits time as General Secretary of Vattara Hope Foundation, a non-profit that runs the School of Hope (founded in 1990) for slum children in Dhaka and Executive Member, Board of Trustees of World Concern Bangladesh operating micro-finance for ultra-poor in Bangladesh.
CAIDP Policy Clinic (TF, TL, RG) - Fall 2025
Policy Clinic Coordinator
Dr. Grace Thomson, Research Group Coordinator
Grace advises on strategy, governance, and policy for AI in Education and public innovation. She founded the AI Academy and is an Advisory Board member of the AI Education Forum in the UAE. She is a member of the UNESCO/IESALC Implementation Group on Ethics, Safety, and Inclusion and a Mentor for the Diploma en Gobernabilidad e Innovación Pública (CAF-Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Grace attained the CAIDP AI Policy Certificates with Distinction and joined the Policy Group, where she led statements to the UK government on AI governance. She was designated a Research Fellow by the CAIDP Board.
Teaching Fellows
Tamiko Eto, MS CIP- Senior Teaching Fellow
Ms. Eto serves as Director of Research Operations at the Mayo Clinic. She has 19 years of experience in the field of human subjects research protection, conducting reviews of complex industry and federally funded AI research. She leverages this experience to implement policies and guidance for AI-enabled healthcare solutions. To facilitate researchers and ethics committees across the US and globally, she has developed tools and checklists for application in the regulatory review of AI research. Tamiko also serves on the AI Ethics Advisory Board for the Institute of Experiential AI (EAI) at Northeastern University. She attained the CAIDP AI Policy Certificates with Distinction and is a Research Fellow and member of the CAIDP Policy Group.
Jason Raymond - Teaching Fellow
Jason Raymond is an International Business professional with extensive experience in DevOps and project management for Ed Tech. His work in the Caribbean and African regions focuses on UNESCO's ICT Competency Framework, online safeguarding, data protection, and open licensing. Jason holds an MA in International Business and an MSc in Internet Applications Development, building on a BSc in Chemistry and Management. Jason graduated with the CAIDP AI Policy Certificate and the Advanced AI Policy Certificate, upon serving as a Team Leader with Distinction.
Varsha Sewlal - Teaching Fellow
Varsha is a Privacy and Tech Lawyer with a background in civil litigation, human rights law, and commercial law. Executive Legal and Deputy Information Officer at the Railway Safety Regulator. Her expertise lies in ICT advisory and training services, drafting legal guidelines and policies, and conducting research on AI regulation, global data protection, cybersecurity frameworks, and ICT law. Varsha is passionate about ICTs and development, crafting effective policy proposals that balance innovation with risk mitigation for societal good. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science, LLB, and LLM in Commercial Law, and is a doctoral candidate. Varsha attained the CAIDP AI Policy Certificates with Distinction and is a Research Fellow and member of the CAIDP Policy Group.
Clea Strydom - Teaching Fellow
Clea Strydom is an international human rights lawyer with an interest in the impact of emerging technology on human rights. Her LL.M. dissertation from the University of South Africa focused on autonomous weapon systems in the context of international humanitarian law. Clea was a member of the Steering Committee on Digital Issues in International Law for the International Law Association and has published numerous articles and book chapters on Artificial Intelligence and digital issues in international law. Clea is enrolled in an LL.M. at Northeastern University School of Law. Clea attained the CAIDP AI Policy Certificate and the Advanced AI Policy Certificate upon serving as a Team Leader, with Distinction.