We’re a group of concerned folks with broad experience across tech, government, journalism and organizing.

We recognized, in ourselves and others, the desire for a countervailing force to tech. All around, there are signals of that desire. The Users Union is our response to that demand.

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Alex Schmidt

Alex has a background in software design and research in both the private and public sectors. She has reported and produced for NPR and won a number of journalism awards. Her book, Deliberate Intervention, is about how the right policy and design choices can shape new tech for the good.

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Aurelio Aguirre

Aurelio is an AI specialist with a background in system security and generative model implementation in NATO based Military systems.

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Jahnavi Ghelani

Jahnavi is a data scientist whose award-winning work spans industries & continents - from satellite mission risk modeling at the European Space Agency (ESA) to software analytics at Siemens. Twelve years in, she's concerned by how few algorithms are held to clear standards & ethics. She mentors data professionals and advocates for tech literacy, convinced that tech becomes a positive enabler only when its users can ask better questions of what’s being built for them.

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Dave Lacy

Dave is a software engineer with over a decade of experience across fintech, IoT, and enterprise AI. Working at the intersection of engineering and executive decision-making, he's seen AI development outpace its guardrails firsthand. He advocates for open-source transparency and ethical AI policy, and has a long history of volunteer work, from Habitat for Humanity builds to Gulf Coast hurricane relief.