Trust & Safety Mentors in the 2023 Responsible Tech Mentorship Program
This year we’re joined by 115 volunteer mentors and 375 mentees from nearly 35 countries. Mentors work at startups, non-profits, in government, at large companies, and even run their own organizations. Many of our mentors are returning for a second time, and some have been with us since the very first cohort in 2021.
Mentorship pods have been divided into subgroups by speciality, and here you’ll find a list of all the mentors in the Trust & Safety.
Trust & Safety plays a pivotal role in ensuring the well-being and security of users within digital environments. It encompasses a range of practices and strategies aimed at mitigating risks such as online harassment, misinformation, fraud, data breaches, and harmful content. By fostering an atmosphere of trust, this field bolsters user confidence in engaging with digital platforms and services. Trust and safety directly impacts user adoption, retention, and overall satisfaction. When users feel secure and protected, they are more likely to freely express themselves, interact with others, and share personal information. Technology companies invest in robust trust and safety measures to create online spaces that are conducive to healthy interactions, safeguarding users from potential harm and enabling the responsible and ethical use of technology on a global scale.
Read about the mentors leading this charge in 2023 for All Tech Is Human (listed in alphabetical order):
Mariah Valerie Barber
Mariah is a dedicated advocate for responsible technology use, dedicating herself to driving positive societal change over the past 7 years. Her journey led her to Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), where she assumed a pivotal role in safeguarding Election Integrity. Her portfolio encompasses high-stakes crisis management during critical global events such as the Russia-Ukraine War, Ethiopian War, COVID-19 Pandemic, US Midterms, and more. Mariah actively conducted investigations into high visibility escalations, harnessing her on-the-ground impact to mitigate tangible real-world harm.
Prior to her tenure at Meta, Mariah managed multifaceted projects that delved into technology's intricate societal impacts. Her work involved assessing the social-spatial policy implications of tech park companies in China, exploring the transformative potential of online social organization within Brazilian cities, and scrutinizing the effects of publicly funded telecommunications infrastructure on rural indigenous communities in Mexico. Having earned an MA in Urban Planning from Harvard University in 2020, Mariah's academic pursuits focused on an array of pertinent subjects including product management for public interest technology, smart city design, user-centered government initiatives, machine learning, data science, and ethics of data privacy. Employing a thoughtful blend of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, she adeptly uncovers the nuanced sociopolitical implications of technology.
Currently, Mariah is working to translate insights from the Trust & Safety sector into the emerging AI Policy landscape and conversations of AI Alignment. Her passion to bridge AI ethics, address social bias, and foster equity led her to become a part of the She recently become a member of the Black in AI community and is actively engaging in studying AI international regulations and standards of LLMs.
Kyle Boerstler
Kyle is a Senior Data Scientist at Activision Publishing working on security and community management for Call of Duty. He has a PhD in Philosophy specializing in Bioethics and the Philosophy of Emotions, and also works part-time for Duke University as a Machine Learning Consultant on bioethical projects. He’s been a Data Scientist for around 2 years, and currently lives in Denver, Colorado.
Numa Dhamani
Matt Dougherty
Matt has been in the online safety space for nearly 20 years, currently as the Senior Product Evangelist at Crisp, a Kroll business, and formerly as Director of Trust & Safety at Google and Snap where he focused on protecting users across harms on search, ads, enterprise, and social products. His main focus is helping move companies and teams from reactive to proactive to preventative, and getting ahead of risks around the next corner. Matt holds a BS in Decision and Information Sciences and an MBA from the University of Florida.
James Gresham
Caroline Humer
Caroline Humer has 20 years experience in child protection working with NGOs, industry, law enforcement and governments around the world. Caroline has led the strategic development of national missing child responses including AMBER Alerts across continents. Caroline used her cross-industry experience to engage with the private sector to establish working groups and coalitions to tackle online harm on social media and gaming platforms. This led to the establishment of the Trust and Safety Forum in 2022 which is being held in Lille, France and Montreal, Canada.
Rhett King
Vejeps Ephi Kingsly
Farah Lalani
Farah is currently the Global Vice President for Trust & Safety Policy together at Teleperformance. She brings together practical capabilities, insights, and enforcement recommendations from a Policy perspective to improve digital safety across a variety of e-commerce, gaming, dating, video sharing, and social media companies. Previously, she worked with regulators, policy makers, business executives, academics and civil society leaders to launch and lead the World Economic Forum's Global Coalition for Digital Safety. She led the development of new policies, practices, and mechanisms for public-private cooperation to tackle harms online. She is passionate about creating a safer, more trustworthy internet for all users.
Previously, in Strategy Consulting, she worked with companies across the media and tech sector to help shape and grow their businesses. She worked on a range of projects from customer experience transformation, digital channel strategies, sales and growth strategies, to developing and implementing AI-powered technology at scale. She is originally from Toronto, Canada but is currently living and working in Zurich, Switzerland.
Paola Maggiorotto
Paola Maggiorotto currently works at Teleperformance as Senior T&S Process Director. As Americas Regional T&S Lead she is responsible for making Teleperformance T&S Centre of Excellence grow across its entire ecosystem. Paola is based out of Medellin, Colombia. Originally from Italy, she spent 12 years in Dublin, Ireland. Her last job there was at Meta as T&S Global Process Manager (specialized in violent, graphic and highly egregious content), leading a team of Project and Program Managers, scaling solutions helping prevent online and real-world harm and reducing risk by building scalable support systems and optimizing processes.
Prior to that, Paola worked at Microsoft as EMEA Technical Support Manager and Search Editorial Specialist ensuring a high-quality and safe user experience on Microsoft Advertising and partner sites. She has 11 years of experience in T&S, through people, project and program management, stakeholder engagement, operations and communication.
Paola is also super passionate about DEI and human rights and has been involved in leading multiple DEI and ERG global initiatives, focusing on guaranteeing a gender and culturally balanced recruiting pipeline/workforce and advocating for more inclusion of women and underrepresented categories in technology and the corporate world.
Outside of the corporate world she volunteered in different NGOs and served for 5 years as Director in the Board of AkiDwA, an Irish charity supporting migrant women in Ireland.
Elgin-Skye McLaren
Elgin-Skye McLaren is a Senior Product Manager at Mozilla. She has a background in web development, is a regular speaker on open source software, and former mentor for Google Summer of Code. She holds a MSc in Interactive Arts & Technology
Elizabeth Mori Tornheim
Elizabeth is a public policy professional focused on responsible product development. She focuses on bringing diverse perspectives and expertise from government, civil society, and academia to shape product and policy development and trust and safety processes. She has worked at companies including Niantic, Twitter, and Facebook/Meta building products and policies focused on user safety, civic integrity, and protecting marginalized groups.
She holds an MA in Public Policy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a BA from New York University.
Stella Ng
Stella Ng is a policy leader with a focus on building healthy platforms through content policy, responsible, safety-centered product development, and public policy.
Paula Garuz Naval
Paula has spent the last 12 years working in the Trust & Safety space holding global roles across the industry. She started her journey in ads policy enforcement at Google for international markets. At Facebook (now Meta), she held several roles from Community Operations to Online Safety investigations, Content Policy development, enforcement and external engagement, as well as Safety Policy outreach. At Reddit, Paula spent three years leading Content Policy developing scalable, principled and transparent rules to enable active, independent and consistent community moderation. Most recently, she collaborated with the Center for AI and Digital Policy conducting global AI policy research and analysis.
She currently advises companies and tech professionals on trust and safety and how to navigate the current global landscape while evolving their product/service, policies and practices responsibly and safely.
Joan Porta
Matt Soeth
Matt serves as Head of Trust & Safety at Spectrum Labs AI supporting the #TSCollective community as well as many of our partner companies across gaming, dating, and social apps. He also serves as an advisor for All Tech is Human focusing on responsible innovation in technology.
As a former member of the Global Trust & Safety Team At TikTok, Matt worked on cross functional teams to develop safety resources on that platform around bullying & harassment, suicide and self harm, hate speech, election integrity, and media literacy education tools.
Yasin Tokat
Yasin Tokat is a Ph.D. researcher at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Szeged in Hungary. His research focuses on the emergence of cyber diplomacy as a tool for resolving issues and disputes in the digital space and improving cooperation among international actors. With a multifaceted background spanning international law, cybersecurity, digital policy, AI policy, and international relations, Yasin adeptly tackles complex subjects from a holistic perspective. He possesses an unwavering enthusiasm for tracking technological advancements and their profound impact on international and political structures. Beyond his academic pursuits, Yasin has actively sought industry exposure, having garnered invaluable experience within international corporations. His keen interest in international business and culture further enhances his understanding of the broader global landscape.
Elodie Vialle
Elodie Vialle is a journalist working at the intersection of Journalism, Technology and Human Rights. Elodie is a Berkman Klein Center Affiliate, a Consultant on Digital Safety and Free Expression at PEN America, a Member of the Coalition Against Online Violence and a Member of the Journalism Safety Research Network.
Aditi Udayabhaskar
Aditi works at the intersection of technology, public interest and society. She is currently Senior Project Manager for Trust & Safety at Meta, where she has worked for the past five years. Aditi drives strategy on efficiency, cost and new solutions, with a view to minimise harmful experiences for users on both Facebook and Instagram. Her portfolio includes nudity & pornography, sexual abuse, hate speech, graphic violence and misinformation. She has led on several pressing online safety issues, including user reporting and flagging, recidivism and upholding user voice. Aditi is a member of the Trust & Safety Professional Association (TSPA) and Integrity Institute. Additionally, she is also a mentor for Women@Tech UK, which is committed to raising the impact of gender equality initiatives at leading big tech companies in the UK. Previously, she worked as data analyst at a fintech startup, with a penchant for building creative Tableau dashboards. Aditi holds a Master's in Business Information & Analytics Systems from University College Cork, finishing top of her class, and a Bachelor's in Management from Royal Holloway, University of London, graduating from both with First Class Honours. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Quercus Scholarship for outstanding academic achievement. She speaks regularly at alumni events and panels, with a special emphasis on promoting women in tech. Aditi is a third-culture kid, and has lived and worked in the United States, United Kingdom, India, Singapore and the Republic of Ireland. Aditi is currently based in London, United Kingdom.
Antonina Vykhrest
Antonina Vykhrest is a Global Program Manager for Harassment and Bullying at TikTok, within the Trust and Safety's Product and Process team. She has previously founded a non-profit startup, worked in emergency tech and international human rights, including with the Council of Europe. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an LLM in International Law of Human Rights from Utrecht University. She completed her BA from Duke University with majors in Political Science and International Comparative Studies. She has previously been awarded the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and the Fulbright Fellowship by the US State Department.