Cori Zarek is the Executive Director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University and a champion for using tools such as data, technology, and design to drive toward better outcomes in our society. At the Beeck Center, Cori leads fellows, students, and staff who direct action-oriented research projects to reimagine how institutions can better serve all people.

Prior to joining the Beeck Center, Cori served as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States where she led work to build a more digital, open, and collaborative government including helping to stand up and support the U.S. Digital Service, 18F, and the Presidential Innovation Fellows. Cori also led the U.S. government’s work with the global Open Government Partnership. She was a Mozilla Foundation fellow in technology policy and advised Code for America on its principles and practices work. In 2020, Cori co-founded U.S. Digital Response which matches pro-bono technologists to work with government and organizations responding to the crisis. She currently leads that organization’s Advisory Council.

Previously, Cori was an attorney at the U.S. National Archives, and before that, at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press where she worked on free press, free expression, and freedom of information issues. She is the President of the Board of Directors for Muckrock, a nonprofit, collaborative news site in the U.S. that promotes transparency for an informed democracy, and also serves on the Advisory Council for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law.

Cori has taught courses in First Amendment law and on data and technology since 2007. At Georgetown, she teaches Data for Social Impact. She holds a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Iowa. You can also find her on Twitter and LinkedIn.