America is in the middle of a technological transformation, with artificial intelligence reshaping education, labor and creative output — all with major implications for social justice and personal liberties. 

In response, the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm, has updated its mission to help shape a future in which technology reflects and serves a diverse, equity-oriented population. Michele Jawando, a former civil rights lawyer, policymaker and Big Tech alumna, will drive the effort. As president, she is tasked with helping lead one of the largest tech-focused philanthropic ventures in the United States. 

Founded by Pierre Omidyar, one of the creators of eBay, and his wife, Pam, the Omidyar Network is looking to fund what they describe as three interrelated drivers of our collective digital future: the culture, governance and business of tech.

Jawando has held a variety of positions at this intersection: She began her career as a third-generation civil rights attorney before going on to hold executive roles at Google, lead initiatives for the progressive think tank the Center for American Progress, and serve as general counsel to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Now Jawando is stewarding Omidyar’s investments to create a better world in which technology is a tool for shared prosperity, not concentrations of power.

Speaking with The 19th shortly after stepping into her new role, Jawando talked about what it means to lead in both the tech and finance communities as a Black woman and to think about equity in the current political moment and in fields that long have been dominated by White men. 

“As a civil rights lawyer, I tend to think about, ‘What are the frames and how we’re operating, and what responsibility and duty do we owe one another?’” Jawando said. “I believe I’m a builder. I think at this moment, which is a defining moment for civilization, I think we are in a period where we’re trying to build something new.” 

For the Omidyar Network, she explained, this means a new mission: “bending the arc of the digital revolution toward shared power, prosperity and possibility.” The group explicitly stated this means funding work enabling the power of technology to rest in the voice of “the many, not the few.” The hybrid organization has both a nonprofit and for-profit side.

“I think even my leadership at this moment is a little bit of a revolutionary act, when you’re really leaning in and pouring into women’s leadership at this moment and Black women’s leadership especially — so I am really, really thankful for the opportunity in the moment,” Jawando said.

Michael Kubzansky, the CEO of the Omidyar Network, told The 19th that over the past 20 years, the group has worked on the future of the tech industry and tech policy, including anti-monopoly policy, privacy policy and online safety for kids. Now it’s positioning itself around “one single North Star, which is the intentional societal governance of the digital revolution.” The big question, he said, is: “What is tech’s role in our lives and how are we going to govern it with some intent?”

Jawando’s experiences in Washington, D.C., policy circles and the tech industry itself, as well as the way she understands the role of grassroots groups, make her the person for the moment, Kubzansky said. 

“She’s a bridge builder,” he said. “She thrives in joy, thrives in trust, thrives in community.”

She takes the reins as corporations and nonprofits across the country are dismantling their diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the wake of the Trump administration characterizing them as “illegal discrimination.” Federally funded research and internal accountability groups have been eliminated and deprioritized since Trump took office.

“I think when you think fundamentally about some of the questions that tech provides for us, if you center it in a human and civil rights frame, there are questions about power, privacy, surveillance, who has the right and who has the ability to engage and what are the inherent rights that we have in this moment,” Jawando said. 

And right now, she said, this means being extremely active and intentional. “I am one of those people who is wildly optimistic about technology’s potential for transformative power for good, and yet if we are not intentional about our design, we fall into the same traps we’ve seen before.”

She pointed to AI companions, which have recently garnered headlines for the ways they have been used, and misused, by young people — including a recent lawsuit filed by a mother who said her 14-year old son’s death by suicide was a byproduct of a relationship he was in with an AI chatbot that had turned sexual in its nature. With more and more stories emerging about young people suffering dramatic consequences because of “relationships” had with these chatbots, Jawando said she understands how frightening this technology, and the lack of regulation around it, feels for parents now. (She’s the mother of four children herself.) 

And she also understands how many parents don’t even understand what this technology is, how their children might be engaging with it — or what has been overlooked when it comes to public policy interventions for usage, especially among minors. 

“We have some of the world’s most important, brightest minds and engineers against a mom who is just trying to get out the door and get her kids to school,” Jawando said. “It sometimes feels like an unfair fight, and so our work at Omidyar is to make sure that everyone sees the value of their perspectives in shaping this debate and this moment like there is value each of us bring.” 

Jawando wants Omidyar Network to use its investment power to think about how to best empower those who feel like they don’t even know what to ask about technology — for example, by working with groups like Common Sense Media that are creating practical tools to help parents best navigate the digital landscape facing their children. 

Jawando said she is deeply inspired by her great aunt, the first Black woman and first woman attorney in Bermuda, and mentors including Cassandra Butts, former deputy general counsel in the White House, and Rep. Susan Molinari, the former Republican lawmaker who went on to become the vice president of public policy at Google, where she hired Jawando. 

Jawando wants to send the same message to others as these women sent to her: You belong in these spaces. It’s why she, through Omidyar, is now working with a group of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) doing AI literacy training across the South. 

“When we think about governance, we think a lot about power — and if power is only concentrated with certain voices being able to say what they want and others being shut out and not having the ability to engage, then we’re not actually talking about freedom, we’re not actually talking about shared power,” Jawando said.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Jawando's title.