Nina Jankowicz is an internationally-recognized expert on disinformation and democratization and one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence.
Her debut book, How to Lose the Information War (Bloomsbury 2020), was named a New Statesman 2020 book of the year; The New Yorker called it “a persuasive new book on disinformation as a geopolitical strategy.” Her second book, How to Be A Woman Online (Bloomsbury 2022), an examination of online abuse and disinformation and tips for fighting back, was deemed “essential” by Publisher’s Weekly.
Jankowicz’s expertise spans the public, private, and academic sectors. She is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project, a bipartisan group increasing the cost of lies that undermine democracy. She has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies; testified before the United States Congress and the UK, Canadian, and European Parliaments; and led accessible, actionable research about the effects of disinformation on women, minorities, democratic activists, and freedom of expression around the world.
In 2022, Jankowicz was appointed to lead the Disinformation Governance Board, an intra-agency best practices and coordination entity at the Department of Homeland Security; she resigned the position after a sustained disinformation campaign caused the Biden Administration to abandon the project. Between 2017-2022, Jankowicz held fellowships at the Wilson Center, where she was affiliated with the Kennan Institute and the Science and Technology Innovation Program. In 2016-17, she advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on disinformation and strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. Prior to her Fulbright grant, she managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute.
Jankowicz holds a Master’s degree from the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She is a proud alumna of Bryn Mawr College, where she studied Political Science and Russian and graduated magna cum laude. She is fluent in Russian and speaks proficient Ukrainian and Polish. In her spare time, Jankowicz enjoys acting in local musical theater productions and hiking. She lives outside of Washington, DC with her husband, son, and cat.