Digital Justice Fellow

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country's first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation's aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality. From that era to the present, LDF's mission has been transformative - to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.

LDF's litigation, public policy advocacy and public education programs in the substantive areas of criminal justice, economic justice, education, and political participation seek to ensure the fundamental and basic human rights of all people to quality education, economic opportunity, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system. LDF continues to make an impact in the area of public service and was recognized by Fast Company as one of its 2023 Brands That Matter under its public service category.

The Digital Justice Fellow will work with LDF litigators, policy advocates, and organizers and assist in the development of litigation, legislation, and advocacy tools to critically examine and address the role of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data in the creation, maintenance, and furthering of racial inequality.

While TMI and LDF are interested in the impact of emerging technologies in Black communities across our core issue areas, our digital rights work has primarily addressed three priorities : 1) police surveillance technologies; 2) algorithmic discrimination as a barrier to economic justice; and 3) the impact of AI on Black political power. The Digital Justice Fellow will advance TMI and LDF's racial justice and emerging technologies agenda by producing reports, briefs, and other written materials and working collaboratively within LDF to educate the public and to support our visionary advocacy work. Experience with racial bias analysis and with technology required.

LDF operates in a hybrid work environment where employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of two days per week, unless otherwise indicated.

Responsibilities :

• Lead the development of a formal digital justice team. The Fellow will work with other team members from litigation, policy, communications, and organizing to inform organizational strategic priorities. The Fellow would also serve as a member of the Justice in Public Safety Project and other relevant internal teams working on the intersections of technology and racial justice;
• Conduct regular landscape analyses / literature reviews of use cases of civil rights violations involving emerging technologies in Black communities and LDF target jurisdictions, regulatory digest of civil and digital rights as well as legal and policy developments related to digital justice in the United States and globally;
• Create TMI research publications, including a public facing webinar, TMI report, brief, podcast, and op-ed / blogs that translate insights and learnings from LDF digital justice advocacy into external-facing products for key stakeholders;
• Support capacity-building activities related to digital justice for LDF staff and our local community partners. This would include developing issue briefings, trainings, and workshop materials for our local partners. This may include providing consultation on AI civil rights audits, legal investigations, and data consultations on related matters. It would also include participating as a standing member of key LDF teams; and
• Other duties as assigned within the general scope of the position.

Qualifications :

This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts or requirements or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned. This description does not constitute a contract of employment and LDF may exercise its employment-at-will rights at any time.

The salary range for this position is $71,200 - $105,000.

LDF offers all eligible employees a generous benefits package. To learn more click the following link 2024 Benefits Overview.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to you without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, age, veteran status, medical condition or disability, genetic information, gender identity, or any other protected status under federal, state, or local law.

Salary : $71,200 - $105,000