About

Daughter of immigrants.
Trying to honor my late parent's legacy.

Julie Wenah
Law taught me how power is written into systems. Product taught me how power actually moves. Culture taught me how change becomes real.

My path hasn't followed the typical tech trajectory. It started with a belief: that the rules governing our world, legal, technological, cultural, determine who gets access and who gets left out.

As a legal fellow at NASA, I began to understand how institutions encode their values into their structures. At the White House, in First Lady Michelle Obama's policy shop, I saw how policy can be wielded to reshape opportunity. At the U.S. Department of Commerce, I led President Obama's manufacturing initiative and worked on U.S.-Africa trade and energy agreements, work that showed me how systems scale.

Then I moved into technology. At Airbnb, I helped create Project Lighthouse, an industry-first initiative to measure and address discrimination on the platform. When 1.3 million users refused to commit to non-discrimination and left, it proved something important: platforms make choices, and those choices matter.

At Meta, as Associate General Counsel and Civil Rights Product Lead, I led the Race Data Measurement initiative, developing privacy-preserving methodologies to understand how marginalized communities experience technology. I created Project Height, a framework for inclusive product development paired with a $250K+ scholarship program investing in the next generation of civil rights and tech leaders.

Today, as Chairwoman of the Digital Civil Rights Coalition, I lead a global network working to shape an inclusive digital ecosystem. As an appointed member of the FCC's Communications Equity and Diversity Council, I co-chair the Innovation and Access Working Group, developing national strategies for digital access.

And through it all, I've been a storyteller. An award-winning filmmaker producing docuseries centered around healing and hip hop, because I know that systems don't change until stories do.

Where I Come From

I am the daughter of Nigerian immigrants who emigrated from a small village with no access to broadband. That reality, the digital divide as a lived experience, not an abstraction, shapes everything I do.

As a dark-skinned Black woman, I'm acutely conscious of how technology affects women who look like me. From facial recognition that fails on darker skin to algorithms that perpetuate bias, I've seen how "neutral" technology often isn't.

Growing up, fictional TV lawyers inspired me to pursue law: Claire Huxtable, Benjamin Matlock, Uncle Phil, Maxine Shaw. Yes, I know they were fictional characters. But you can't be what you don't see, and that principle drives my work on representation in tech today.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown. It does feel heavy, but I know for such a time as this, that I must be equipped.”

The Progression

Present

Chairwoman, Digital Civil Rights Coalition

Leading global network shaping inclusive digital ecosystem; filmmaker and creative

Meta/Facebook

Associate General Counsel, Civil Rights Product Lead

Created Race Data Measurement initiative and Project Height scholarship

Airbnb

Community Senior Counsel & Acting Regional Counsel, Africa

Led Project Lighthouse anti-discrimination initiative

U.S. Department of Commerce

Counselor and Policy Advisor

Led President Obama's manufacturing communities agenda; supported U.S.-Africa trade agreements

White House

First Lady Michelle Obama's Policy Shop

Policy work advancing education initiatives

NASA

Legal Fellow

Where the legal career began

Today, my work is focused on one thing: making sure technology doesn't quietly become the next civil rights blind spot.