Dr. Gina Helfrich is Program Officer for Global Technology at Internews. She has spent the past five years working to make technology better serve the needs of vulnerable and marginalized people. Presently, she manages global programs encompassing two streams of work: advancing sustainability for open source security tools used by journalists and human rights organizations (HROs) and improving the safety and resilience of journalists and HROs facing digital attacks. Prior to Internews, Dr. Helfrich served as Director of Communications & Culture at NumFOCUS, a non-profit supporting open source scientific software and data science communities.
In addition to her extensive experience in program management and strategic communications, Dr. Helfrich has worked to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the business, social enterprise, higher education, and non-profit sectors for over a decade. She is the former Director of the Harvard College Women’s Center at Harvard University and earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Emory University.