Tech & Human Rights with Katie Shay

“Seeking out opportunities to get on the job experience and pursuing your interests – you don’t have to wait to graduate to do this.”

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KATIE SHAY is Legal Counsel for Business and Human Rights at Yahoo where she advises in business decision-making processes related to product launches, transactions, internal policies and public policy positions, with particular focus on freedom of expression and privacy. She partners with teams across the company globally to analyze risk and design mitigation strategies, as well as to identify opportunities to promote freedom of expression and privacy through Yahoo’s products, platforms and services. Katie also represent Yahoo as Board Alternate for the Global Network Initiative, the multistakeholder initiative for human rights in the technology sector, and in BSR Human Rights Working Group. Here work is about managing relationships and effectively communicate with external stakeholders, including peer companies, NGOs, academics, government officials, and investors.

 

Katie graduated from Georgetown University Law Center, where she served as managing editor of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives, President of Georgetown Law’s Amnesty International chapter, and co-chair of the law school’s committee on Human Rights Fact Finding. She was also a student attorney with the Institute for Public Representation, where she worked both with indigenous communities seeking to protect their land from environmental harm and with non-profit organizations petitioning the U.S. government to impose new emissions limits on coal-fired power plants.

Katie is a co-author of Sent “Home” with Nothing:  The Deportation of Jamaicans with Mental Disabilities, a report that examines human rights implications of U.S. deportation policy. Katie has previously worked at EarthRights International; the law firm of Meyer, Glitzenstein and Crystal; and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. She holds a B.A. from Marquette University. Outside of her work experience, Katie blogs about contemporary business and human rights issues on the Huffington Post and her work has been featured in various other publications. She serves as Vice-Chair of the ABA International Human Rights Committee, is a Thematic Specialist on Business and Human Rights for Amnesty International U.S.A, and is a member of the Stakeholder Advisory Board to the U.S. OECD National Contact Point.