MTePP: Explore How Technology Shapes Society
December 1, 2025
Our new Master's in Technology, People, and Policy program explores how emerging technologies are shaping society—bringing together the technical, human, and policy dimensions of today’s most advanced digital tools. Students dive into the ethical, legal, environmental, and governance challenges that define our rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Instructors include tech policy experts Dominique Duval-Diop, deputy chief data officer for the Department of Commerce; Nicol Turner Lee, a researcher and senior fellow at the Brooking Institution and author of Digitally Invisible: How the internet is creating the new underclass; and Nik Marda, a campaign manager and the former technical lead for AI governance at Mozilla.
The inaugural cohort includes:
- A strategic design researcher and product innovation expert looking to balance San Francisco’s tech echo chamber with diverse Northwestern perspectives (plus the occasional deep dish 🍕).
- A team leader in cybersecurity and infrastructure security.
- A recent SESP alum now working as a project manager and people-first strategist at Capital One.
- A managing director at Microsoft.
- A recent Northwestern graduate (cognitive science, psychology) exploring the intersections of philosophy, rapid tech change, critical thinking, policy, and AI literacy.
- A recent UC Davis graduate aiming to bridge computer science, ethics, public policy, and human-centered design.
- A Paralympic silver medalist, world record holder, and world champion swimmer who represented the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.