Ashna Devaprasad

Ashna (Oxford, United Kingdom) grew up in India and is a qualified lawyer. Her legal work in India focused mainly on public law, criminal law, and human rights litigation, following which she completed a Master's degree in Criminological Research. She currently splits her time between London and Oxford, where she works as an applied researcher and consultant at the intersection of public policy, digital capability, and government reform.

Ashna enjoys learning about the human side and inner workings of legal and public institutions. As a mixed-methods researcher, she believes in the power of integrating knowledge from across disciplinary boundaries and methodological traditions when trying to solve sticky social problems. More recently, she has become especially interested in the trust and safety world. Ashna believes that although technology can cause real harm when it is poorly designed or weakly governed, when built thoughtfully and with users’ needs in mind, it also holds huge potential to support learning, empower young people, and safeguard them from harm.

At the Civic Tech Institute, Ashna is keen to learn ways to harness the power of data science tools to inform evidence-led policy decisions. She is most excited, however, by the opportunity to exchange ideas and collaborate with other scholars working on civic challenges across the world.

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