Carolina A. Rossini
Carolina A. Rossini is a globally recognized expert in technology policy, law, and digital governance, with over 25 years of experience across the private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. From 2016 to 2022, she was honored as a Young Global Leader and Fellow by the World Economic Forum (WEF). A Brazilian-American lawyer and strategic advisor, she has guided governments, international organizations, and corporations on policies advancing innovation, inclusion, and human rights, with a strong focus on responsible digital transformation in the Global South.
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Carolina is a Professor of Practice and Director of Programs at the Public Interest Technology Initiative (PIT@UMass), where she leads efforts to align technology with public interest goals through teaching, community engagement, and policy-driven projects. She is also a Law Lecturer at Boston University School of Law and a PIT SPARK! Fellow at BU’s Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences.
Carolina co-founded and served as Director for Policy and Research at the Datasphere Initiative, shaping its global strategy and leading projects on data governance, AI governance, and regulatory sandboxes. Her career includes senior roles at the Portulans Institute (Co-Founder and CEO), Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (Vice President for International Policy), and Facebook (Global Connectivity Public Policy Manager). Earlier, she was a Fellow and Researcher under Prof. Yochai Benkler at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (2008–2010).
In Brazil, Carolina founded and directed the Clinical Program at Fundação Getulio Vargas Law School in Rio de Janeiro, served as a senior researcher at its Center for Technology and Society (CTS), and worked as in-house counsel for Telefónica’s ISP division. She also directed RightsCon Tunisia, convening over 3,000 global participants to advance digital rights.
Her expertise has informed major UN, OECD, OAS, and WEF initiatives. She has been a Council Member for the G20/T20 under the Brazil and South Africa Presidencies and a two-time member of the WEF Councils (Global Future Council on Agile Digital Governance and Future Agenda Council on Intellectual Property). She has also consulted to funders and international organizations, including Co-Develop, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, IDRC, MDF, OAS, and UNHCR.
Carolina holds an LL.M. in Intellectual Property from Boston University, an MBA in E-Business from Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), and a Law degree from the University of São Paulo. She lives with her husband, John Wilbanks, their son Noah, and their pets, Uba and Blueberry.