Yeshimabeit Milner

American technologist and African American activist
Yeshimabeit Milner
Born
United States
Alma materBrown University
Occupation(s)Technologist, activist
AwardsRoddenberry Foundation Fellowship (2018)

Yeshimabeit "Yeshi" Milner is an American technologist and activist.[1][2] She is the executive director and co-founder of Data for Black Lives.[3][4]

Early life and education

Yeshimabeit Milner grew up in Miami, Florida.[5][6][7] Starting in her late teens, Milner became involved in activism and data science.[8][9][10] She worked with the Power U Center for Social Change as a high school senior.[1][6] Milner attended Brown University, graduating in 2012 with a BA degree in Africana Studies.[11][7]

Career

In 2013 at age 22, after returning to Miami after college, Milner started working with the Power U Center for Social Change and looking at Black infant mortality rates locally in trying to understand why they were disproportionately so high.[12][6] They were able to retrieve data from 300 mothers, and as a result changed local policy.[12][third-party source needed]

One of her classmates at Brown University was mathematician Lucas Mason-Brown, together they founded Data for Black Lives in November 2017.[13][14] The Data for Black Lives (D4BL) annual conference was started in 2018 by Yeshimabeit Milner and Lucas Mason- Brown.[15] They use the slogan, "Abolish Big Data!" with hopes to redesign big data and to "put data into the hands of those who need it most".[16][17] In 2020, the group was able to compile state-level data about the impact of COVID-19 on Black people and are working on compiling a nationwide database of technologies used by police departments.[18] In 2021, Milner co-wrote a research piece for Demos on algorithmic racism from Big Tech companies.[19][20]

Awards and accolades

Milner served on the board of the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee.[1] In 2018, she was awarded a Roddenberry Foundation Fellowship, which honors and invests in extraordinary people who can change the world.[21] In 2020, Data for Black Lives and its founders were awarded the Forbes 30 Under 30 and the New York Times 2020 Good Tech Awards.[3][22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Yeshimabeit "Yeshi" Milner". Equal Justice Society. 2018-06-22. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  2. ^ D'Ignazio, Catherine; Klein, Lauren F. (2020-03-17). Data Feminism. MIT Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-262-04400-4.
  3. ^ a b Roose, Kevin (2020-12-30). "The 2020 Good Tech Awards". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  4. ^ "9 Black Women in Data Science to Know | Built In". builtin.com. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  5. ^ Cocco, Federica; Smith, Alan (July 22, 2020). "Race and America: Why Data Matters". Financial Times. The Financial Times Limited. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  6. ^ a b c "Yeshimabeit "Yeshi" Milner". Netroots Nation. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  7. ^ a b Lo, Puck (2018-05-30). "Practitioner Profile: Yeshimabeit Milner". #MoreThanCode. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  8. ^ "2019 Speakers". Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH). 2019-07-31. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  9. ^ "Yeshimabeit Milner on Abolish Big Data and Data 4 Black Lives". IGSF. McGill University. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  10. ^ "Databite No. 129: Abolish Big Data". Data & Society. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  11. ^ Rosenfeld, Maia (2019-02-21). "University event highlights complexities of data power". Brown Daily Herald. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  12. ^ a b "Why We Need Data For Black Lives". Forbes. Ashoka. December 11, 2019. Retrieved 2021-01-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  13. ^ "Profile: Data for Black Lives". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  14. ^ "Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  15. ^ Miller, Sandi (December 13, 2017). "Calculating the cost of tech-fueled discrimination". MIT News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  16. ^ Donovan, Joan (2020-01-14). "Redesigning consent: big data, bigger risks". Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. 1 (1). doi:10.37016/mr-2020-006.
  17. ^ Kilgore, James (2022-01-18). Understanding E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring, the Surveillance State, and the Future of Mass Incarceration. The New Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-62097-615-9.
  18. ^ Roose, Kevin (31 December 2020). "The 2020 Good Tech Awards". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2021-01-17.
  19. ^ "Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism". Demos. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  20. ^ "The Capitalist in the Machine: Decoding Data Capitalism". Nonprofit Quarterly. 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
  21. ^ "Yeshimabeit Milner". Roddenberry Foundation. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  22. ^ "30 Under 30 2020: Social Entrepreneurs". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-01-17.

External links

  • Ashoka fellow profile
  • Echoing Greens fellow profile