Lori McGlinchey is the director of the foundation’s Technology and Society program. She leads Ford’s domestic and international efforts to support organizations working to ensure that the internet and digital technologies are designed and governed to advance social and economic justice and free expression, particularly for those experiencing persistent discrimination.
She previously served as a senior program officer at Ford, where she developed and led grantmaking strategies to expand broadband equity, advance free expression, support public interest technologists, and challenge harmful corporate and government surveillance, extractive data practices, and discriminatory predictive technologies.
Before joining Ford in 2014, Lori was senior program officer for the U.S. Democracy Fund of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), responsible for developing and leading funding strategies on U.S. media and internet policy, government accountability, investigative journalism, and documentary film. She also served as assistant director of OSF’s U.S. programs and developed a special initiative to address the politicization of science-based U.S. policymaking and its impact on free expression, reproductive justice, climate policy, and whistleblower protections. She developed a program to strengthen communications, governance, fundraising, leadership, and technology capacity for OSF grantees.
Earlier in her career, she produced a 13-hour radio series for NPR called Jewish Short Stories From Eastern Europe and Beyond, hosted by Leonard Nimoy and featuring work by Isaac Babel, Grace Paley, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Lori serves on the board of directors for the Partnership on AI and the advisory board of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. She also serves on the steering committees of the Spyware Accountability Fund, the European AI and Society Fund, the Public Interest Tech Fund, and the Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Amherst College.
