Shadrock Roberts

Director, Global Data Protection, Privacy, & Ethical AI

Lead and scale comprehensive data protection and privacy program for humanitarian organization operating in complex emergencies and 40+ countries, reaching over 29 million participants.

• Led two teams to restructure strategy and business model; cut costs by 36k annually; and increased funding by 40%.
• Create roadmap and own prioritization process for privacy projects that include policies, procedures, and agreements. Lead collaboration with legal, procurement, and other teams.
• Manage incident response for data breaches: developed standard operating procedures during rapid office shutdowns in Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Gaza.
• Founded “Ethical AI” work stream: spearheaded 2 generative AI product launches reaching 6k staff across more than 40 countries and lead research on emerging AI regulations to support policy creation, risk mitigation, and privacy reviews.

Deputy Director, Global Data Protection & Privacy

Expanded data protection and privacy operations by creating and delivering products, services, and training and supporting requests in over 30 countries.

• Automated business functions to increase efficiency by 10%. Developed business intelligence pipeline, KPIs, and analysis for reporting.
• Managed multiple platforms to scale privacy impact assessments (DPIA / PIA), record of processing activities (ROPA), data subject requests (DSAR / DSR), and cybersecurity training across the organization.
• Provided privacy consulting based on national regulations, use-case, donor requirements, and data types.
• Created training to translate responsible data guidance into operational procedures for country offices and partners.

Assistant Professor of GIScience

Created and delivered graduate courses on data management, analysis, and visualization for humanitarian operations.

• Created scalable online courses, under open license, to support continuity plans for COVID-19.
• Founded internship program with the United Nations Satellite Centre.

Director of Resilience & Research Programs

Provided program management and strategic direction for $1,630,000 in grant-funded programs to deliver new features in open-source software deployed 200k times in over 160 countries.

• Managed 3 programs and staff and led cross-team collaboration for product development: launched integrations with machine learning and natural language processing services.
• Led user-research teams and conducted assessments in complex environments to identify data protection and privacy issues and define requirements for product team.
• Implemented user training and managed impact assessments with communities in Rwanda, Kenya, Nepal, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Principal Geographic Information Systems Analyst

Led expansion of USAID’s geospatial capacity by co-founding and managing the GeoCenter: led business strategy and management of programs, products, and training across departments.

• Founded USAID’s Remote Sensing Program: managed technical design and risk management to deliver satellite imagery valued at $1.5 million to internal and external partners.
• Established data governance policies and privacy review procedures to launch the first use of crowdsourcing to process agency data.
• Created and led global trainings and coached field staff on data protection, end user security, and data collection in Iraq, Haiti, Kenya, Thailand, Nepal, Congo, and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Research Project Manager

Planned and implemented field data collection and managed staff for U.S. Geological Survey grant ($500,000) to capture remote sensing data for Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Research Fellow

Developed remote sensing algorithms for semi-automated extraction of cultural features in refugee camps to estimate population in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya.