About the IAPP

Dr. Elif Kiesow Cortez is a leading policy expert in technology governance and data privacy. Elif is a research fellow for Stanford Law School and collaborates with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Elif supports responsible AI practices in her role as the executive director of Ethicqual. She has worked in policy advisory, project management, and academic roles on the governance of emerging technologies. Elif has been appointed as an advisory board member for projects of leading institutions including the UNFCCC, IAPP, and the European Research Council.

Previously, Elif was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School. Her doctoral research at the Institute of Law and Economics, University of Hamburg, Germany, was funded by the German Research Association (DFG). During her doctoral studies, she was a visiting researcher at Harvard Business School and Berkeley School of Law.

Elif is an expert on behavioral strategies for effective tech policies addressing cooperation problems between public and private actors. Elif has acquired research grants for projects on tech governance commissioned by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Elif has served as team lead for the NIST Privacy Workforce Public Working Group on Awareness and Training. Elif also served as a subject matter expert in the preparation phase of the IAPP AI Governance Professional (AIGP) certification exam.