Becca Ricks (she/her) is a researcher, technologist, strategist, and artist with a decade of experience leading research into emerging technologies at nonprofits.

Currently, Becca is Project Director of the Public Technology Leadership Collaborative at Data & Society, where she stewards a network of 500+ technologists, scholars, advocates, and experts thinking critically about AI design, governance, and policy. Previously, she was the Head of Open Source Research & Investigations at Mozilla Foundation, where she directed a lab studying user control, transparency, and privacy in relation to technology platforms.

Becca was named as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and served on steering committees for the Partnership on AI’s ABOUT ML project and Ford Foundation’s Public Interest Technology network. She completed a 2017-2018 technical fellowship at Human Rights Watch. She holds a master’s degree from NYU-ITP, where her research explored algorithmic categorization.

As an artist, Becca’s practice is rooted in material and digital experimentation. Her projects include textiles knitted on a hacked knitting machine, 3D models made with experimental imaging techniques, and tiny websites and browser extensions. Becca is a co-founder of tendernet, an art collective exploring technological futures through speculative design and writing.

Becca has spoken at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, MIT, the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center, RISD, and a number of other venues. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, and WIRED.

Get in touch ➰ baricks (at) protonmail.com.
CV available upon request.
linkedin bluesky are.na github