Bio:
Carolina A. Rossini is a technology policy and law expert, Professor of Practice, and Director of Programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Public Interest Technology Initiative, where she teaches and conducts research on AI governance, digital policy, government digital transformation, privacy, human rights, and responsible technology adoption. She designed and launched the university’s online Graduate Certificate in Public Interest Technology. At UMass, she is a faculty associate at CSSI, DACSS, and contributes to the Ignition Program at CDSAI. A Brazilian American lawyer with nearly three decades of experience across the private, nonprofit, academic, and public sectors, she has advised governments, international organizations, philanthropic foundations, and global companies on digital governance, technology policy, and human rights.
Carolina also serves as adjunct faculty at Boston University School of Law. She sits on the boards of Datasphere Initiative, Derechos Digitales, Instituto Educa Digital, and I am the Code. She co-founded the Datasphere Initiative and co-founded and served as the first CEO of the Portulans Institute. Her work spans AI and data governance, digital public infrastructure, and rights-based technology frameworks, including projects across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Previously, Carolina held senior positions at Access Now, where she served as RightsCon Director for the Tunis edition; at Public Knowledge, where she was Vice President for International Policy and Strategy; and at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she served as International Intellectual Property Director. She was also Global Connectivity Public Policy Manager at Meta and a Fellow and Project Manager at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, working with Professor Yochai Benkler.
As a consultant and advisor, Carolina has worked with organizations including Co-Develop, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, the Organization of American States Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, and UNHCR. She has also served on advisory boards of organizations including Global Partners Digital, InternetLab, and Open Knowledge Foundation Brazil.
Over the years, Carolina has provided training and capacity-building to policymakers, government officials, and public-sector leaders worldwide on technology law and policy, data governance, and emerging technologies. She regularly teaches in the annual Digital Transformation School organized by NIC.br in partnership with CAF and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), working with policymakers and public-sector professionals on the legal and institutional dimensions of digital transformation. She has represented her organizations in global policy processes involving the United Nations, trade negotiations including ACTA and TPP, the World Economic Forum, the OAS, the OECD, and the G20/T20
Carolina was nominated as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (2016-2021) and has served on WEF’s Future Agenda Councils on Intellectual Property (2011) and WEF’s Global Future Council on Future Technologies (2023-2024). She served two consecutive terms on the T20/G20 Council (2024–2025). Her publications include books, chapters, peer-reviewed articles, and policy reports with Routledge, Cambridge University Press, IEEE, UNESCO, UNDP, and CIGI, as well as commentary in The Conversation and Folha de São Paulo. She has spoken at more than 100 events worldwide and provided expert testimony and input to UN processes and the U.S. and Brazilian Congresses.
Education:
HKUST Business School Executive Education, Hong Kong (2025) - Certificate on Artificial Intelligence, via WEF YGL Education Award
Virginia University, Online, Certificate on Diversity Leadership, via WEF YGL Education Award (2021)
Oxford University, Oxford (2027) - Certificate in Transformational Leadership, via World Economic Forum Young Global Leader (WEF YGL) Education Award
Boston University School of Law, Boston, MA (2007-2008) - LL.M. in Intellectual Property, with a scholarship from BU
UNICAMP and UNESP Santiago Dantas Joint Program , São Paulo, Brazil (2005-2006) - International Relations and Economic Negotiations Joint Masters
Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain (2003-2004) - MBA for E-Business
Awarded a scholarship and annual salary by Telefónica Group and Fundación Carolina, Spain.
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP) – São Paulo, Brazil (2000-2004)
International Relations Bachelor (incomplete – 3 of 4 years) Honors: Cambridge Leadership Training Award
University of São Paulo School of Law - São Paulo, Brazil (1996-2000)
Bachelor of Laws - 5-year program (JD equivalent)