Meet OTI's Summer 2018 Interns and Fellows

As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, our empty cubicles are filling up with smiling new faces eager to dive deep into the world of tech policy. That’s right: our summer interns have arrived! We are excited to welcome seven interns and fellows to our Washington, D.C. office. Read on to learn more about OTI’s new recruits:

Kendall Lake, our communications intern, is a soon-to-be senior at the University of Georgia where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s in journalism and a combined Master’s in emerging media. As the curator for TEDxUGA, she spends a lot of time thinking about TED talks and presentation development, but she is also interested in technology and digital storytelling. Kendall enjoys travel, yoga, and (futile) attempts to reach the last book in her to-be-read stack.

Azeb Madebo is a fourth year Ph.D. student at USC Annenberg's School for Communication and Journalism. Her research looks at the relationships between socio-economic development, civic engagement, and ICTs within sub-Saharan East Africa.  Over the summer, she will be working on an evaluation study for Ranking Digital Rights as a COMPASS fellow.

Alexandra Mays  is a New England native working with the open internet team as a Google Public Policy Fellow. She is a rising 3L at William & Mary Law School where she serves as the Executive Editor of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal and Chief Justice of the Honor Council. She is an avid soul cyclist and podcast devotee. Also, her cat has twice as many Instagram followers as she does.

Lawrence McDonald is a policy intern with the secure team. He is originally from Oakland, California and came to OTI via Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs where he is an MPA candidate. He enjoys music and soccer, and is currently on a mission to find the best taco in D.C. He is interested in expanding safe and open internet access, procurement policy, minimizing surveillance on IoT, and increasing tech literacy.

Michael Pizzi is a Legal Intern with the Secure Team. He is currently a Furman Public Policy Scholar at NYU Law and an M.A. candidate at Yale University, where he focuses his studies on global tech policy. Prior to graduate school, he worked as a foreign policy reporter for Al Jazeera America and studied Internet access in refugee camps as a Fulbright Fellow in Jordan.

Donae Simms is a senior at H.D. Woodson STEM High School and is interning with OTI as part of the Urban Alliance program. After college, she is interested in becoming a FBI agent. In her free time, she likes to listen to music and watch movies on Netflix.

Nick Thieme, our data journalism intern, is a researcher and freelance reporter with writing appearing in Slate Magazine, BuzzFeed News, Significance Magazine, and Undark Magazine. Both his writings and research focus on the intersection of society with technology, science, and statistics. When he’s not working, it’s a safe bet he’s hanging out with his dog (whom he loves despite her prodigious flaws), listening to experimental music, or thinking up video game articles he’ll never pitch.

Interested in working with the OTI team? Check out OTI and New America’s current job openings here, and keep an eye out for new postings in the future!