Chelsea McCullough

Dr. Chelsea McCullough brings decades of experience working at the intersection of government, technology, and community-led innovation. She focuses on translating between and across the public, private, social, and academic sectors to build shared language and common understanding so that diverse groups may address complex social and civic challenges.

Chelsea directs initiatives that prioritize the ethical design and application of emerging technologies (including AI) based on principles of collaboration, inclusion, equity, and transparency. She integrates this work across several domains. In her roles as the Founder of Digi.City and a Strategic Advisor to Smart Cities Connect, she convenes government and industry leaders to build cohesive ecosystems. As a researcher, she focuses on resident-centered community engagement with city government. She has also led initiatives to co-design AI-enabled smart hand tools with skilled trade workers with the City of Austin, the Texas AFL-CIO, and Good Systems, a UT Grand Challenge. Chelsea is also an Instructor at Texas State University in Department of Political Science.

Chelsea completed her PhD in Information Science from the School of Information and MA and BS degrees in Communication from The University of Texas at Austin. She is an NSF NRT Fellow in Ethical AI, a ZEIT-Stiftung Research Fellow with the City Science Lab in Hamburg, GE, a Simon Industrial & Professional Fellow at the University of Manchester (UK), a Marshall Memorial Fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow.