Keynote Speakers

We are excited to announce the Keynote Speakers for ACM EAAMO ‘25. Our keynote speakers represent diverse disciplines and experiences, ensuring that the conversations at EAAMO remain both globally relevant and locally grounded.

Nyalleng Moorosi #

Biography: Nyalleng is a research fellow at Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). Her research interests are in fairness and inclusion and how we can leverage local knowledge to improve model performance in low-resource settings. Before DAIR she was a research software engineer at the Google Africa research lab and previous to that she was a senior researcher at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial research, where she worked closely with government and academic institutions to develop a diversity of products for private and public institutions. Nyalleng is also a founding member of the Deep Learning Indaba, the largest machine learning consortium of AI/ML practitioners in Africa.

Catherine D’Ignazio #

Biography: Catherine D’Ignazio is an Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. She is also Director of the Data + Feminism Lab which uses data and computational methods to work towards gender and racial justice, particularly as they relate to space and place. D’Ignazio is a scholar, artist/designer and hacker mama who focuses on feminist technology, data literacy and civic engagement. She has run reproductive justice hackathons (like the Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon), designed global news recommendation systems, created talking and tweeting water quality sculptures, and led walking data visualizations to envision the future of sea level rise. With Rahul Bhargava, she built the platform Databasic.io, a suite of tools and activities to introduce newcomers to data science. Her 2020 book from MIT Press, Data Feminism, co-authored with Lauren Klein, charts a course for more ethical and empowering data science practices. D’Ignazio’s second book, Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action (MIT Press 2024), highlights how mainstream data science can learn a lot from the care and memory work of grassroots feminist activists across the Americas. Her research at the intersection of technology, design & social justice has been published in FAccT, the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, Big Data & Society, and the proceedings of Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM SIGCHI). Her art and design projects have won awards from the Tanne Foundation, Turbulence.org and the Knight Foundation and exhibited at the Venice Biennial and the ICA Boston.

Rayid Ghani, Pim Welle, Randall Taylor #

Rayid Ghani is a Professor in the Machine Learning Department (within the School of Computer Science) and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His research develops and applies AI and machine learning for public policy and social good, with a focus on fairness, equity, and accountability across domains such as healthcare, education, criminal justice, and public safety.

Pim Welle serves as Chief Data Scientist at Allegheny County Department of Human Services. He holds an engineering degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University. His career has focused on developing statistical and machine learning systems for government institutions. Currently, he creates innovative tools within human services to evaluate system effectiveness and direct resources to individuals with the greatest needs. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at CMU, teaching graduate courses in Data Science for Public Policy and training future leaders to use data responsibly for social impact.

Randall Taylor is a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh’s East End and a graduate of Pittsburgh Public Schools and the University of Pittsburgh, where he studied Urban Studies and History. He has held roles with the Urban League of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Coalition Against Substance Abuse, and the Allegheny County Treasurer’s Office before serving for 12 years on the Pittsburgh Board of Education. Taylor re-entered community work following the mass displacement of residents at the Penn Plaza Apartments in East Liberty. He co-founded the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition, a leading voice in Pittsburgh’s housing justice movement. Today, he continues to advocate for affordable housing and to fight against gentrification and displacement across the city.