Beth Simone Noveck
Beth Simone Noveck is the Director of the Burnes Center for Social Change and a professor at Northeastern University, where she also leads the GovLab, a partner project dedicated to improving governance through technology. She holds faculty positions at the Institute for Experiential AI, the School of Law, and in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, the College of Arts, Design, and Media, the College of Engineering, and is affiliated faculty at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.
At Northeastern, Beth directs the AI for Impact program and the InnovateMA co-op, which partners with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to empower students to use artificial intelligence and human-centered design for public sector innovation. Her work focuses on using AI to reimagine participatory democracy and strengthen governance. In collaboration with Citizens Foundation, she is building AI-enabled tools to enhance collective intelligence and participatory problem-solving. Beth also shares her insights on AI, democracy, and governance on her blog, Reboot Democracy.
In 2024, Beth was appointed Chief AI Strategist for the State of New Jersey by Governor Murphy. She previously served as the State’s founding Chief Innovation Officer, leading efforts to modernize government services, improve data transparency, and strengthen digital public infrastructure. This included projects like streamlining unemployment insurance, coordinating COVID-19 response efforts, and building open data platforms to enhance workforce development and business growth.
Before joining Northeastern, Beth served as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama, where she founded the White House Open Government Initiative. She also served as a senior advisor for Open Government for UK Prime Minister David Cameron and as a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Digital Council from 2018 to 2021.
Beth is a pioneering civic technologist, having created early platforms like Unchat, Peer-to-Patent, and Democracy Island in Second Life, all designed to make government more transparent, collaborative, and responsive. She is the founder of open, online courses like Solving Public Problems, Open Justice, and InnovateUS, which have trained social innovators and public sector professionals in over 100 countries.
Beth is the author of Solving Public Problems: How to Fix Our Government and Change Our World (Yale Press, 2021), named a Best Book of 2021 by Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her latest book, Democracy Rebooted: How AI Can Save Democracy, explores the role of artificial intelligence in revitalizing democratic institutions.
Beth’s contributions to technology and governance have earned her numerous accolades, including recognition as one of the “Foreign Policy 100” by Foreign Policy, one of Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business,” and one of the World’s 100 Most Influential Academics in Government by Apolitical. She received a doctorat honoris causa from the University of Geneva in October 2023.