Bio
Susan Ariel Aaronson is a CIGI senior fellow, research professor of international affairs at George Washington University (GWU) and co-principal investigator with the National Science Foundation/National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she leads research on data and AI governance. She was also named GWU Public Interest Technology Scholar.
Susan directs the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub at GWU. The Hub was founded in 2019 and educates policy makers, the press and the public about data governance and data-driven change through conferences, webinars, study groups, primers and scholarly papers. It is the only organization in the world that maps the governance of public, proprietary and personal data at the domestic and international levels. The Hub’s research has been funded by foundations such as Ford and Minderoo.
Susan directs projects on defining AI protectionism; how governments may incentivize more accurate, complete and representative data sets; and how open-source AI builds trust. She regularly writes op-eds for Barron’s and has been a commentor on economics for NPR’s Marketplace, All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and for NBC, CNN, the BBC and PBS.
Previously, Susan was a guest scholar in economics at the Brookings Institution (1995–1999) and a research fellow at the World Trade Institute (2008–2012). Susan was also the Carvalho Fellow at the Government Accountability Project and held the Minerva Chair at the National War College. She has served on the business and human rights advisory board at Amnesty International and the advisory board of Human Rights under Pressure, a joint German and Israeli initiative on human rights.
In her spare time, Susan enjoys triathlons and ballet.