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Nicol Turner Lee

Nicol Turner Lee

She/Her
  • Adjunct Faculty

Contact

Website

Affiliated Center(s)

Brookings Institution

Research Interests

Applied sociologist who is interested in the intersectionality between technology and society, as well as the implications on power dynamics and inequalities. I am interested in the intersection of technology and society, and how social justice and parity factors into the experiences that individuals and communities have with existing and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

Biography

Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) and co-editor of the TechTank blog and podcast at the Brookings Institution, which is a global think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. She is also the founder of the AI Equity Lab housed within CTI. Dr. Turner Lee's research encompasses equitable access to technology across the U.S. and abroad. Her portfolio also includes leading research and public policy work focused on the identification and mitigation of online biases in artificial intelligence systems. She is the author of the book, Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass (Brookings Press, 2024), and has appeared throughout various news media, testified before Congress and international global governance bodies, and written extensively on tech and telecom issues. In 2022, she was recognized for distinguished career contributions by the American Sociological Association at the annual conference. She has her B.A. from Colgate University, and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in sociology.

Education

  • Ph.D., Northwestern University, June 2022.
  • M.A., Northwestern University, 1992
  • B.A., Colgate University, June 1990

Awards and Honors

  • 2022, Distinguished Career Award, American Sociological Association
  • 2025, Distinguished Career, D.C. Sociological Association
  • 2025, Champion Award, Institute for Digital Inclusion Acceleration

Select Publications

Turner Lee, Nicol. Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass (Brookings Press, 2024)

Full list of publications can be found here.