About The Event
As concerns about student privacy and online safety continue to grow, Toyo University, George Washington University Law School Center for Law and Technology, and the Public Interest Privacy Center (PIPC) are excited to announce a free conference, “Student Privacy & Parental Consent: Legal Innovations and Global Insights,” and a pre-conference workshop, “Child Privacy Online,” at George Washington University in Washington, DC on February 6 and 7, 2025.
The conference will convene experts to discuss emerging global frameworks to better safeguard child and student privacy and safety online. Attendees will gain practical strategies for implementing parental consent, learn about innovative legal frameworks from around the world, and network with leading experts in the field of student privacy. See the agenda below, and check back here as additional speakers are announced!
Agenda
February 7, 9:00 - 5:30pm ET
George Washington University Law School
Washington, DC
| 8:00 – 9:15 am ET | Registration |
| 9:00 – 9:15 am ET | Introductory Remarks |
| 9:15 – 9:30 am ET | Firestarter Talk
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| 9:30 – 11:00 am ET | Education Privacy: Comparing Consent Practices Globally
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| 11:00 – 11:15 am ET | Break |
| 11:15 – 12:30 pm ET | Parental Consent and Privacy: Finding the Right Balance for Students
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| 12:30 – 1:30 pm ET | Lunch |
| 1:30 – 2:45 pm ET | Privacy in Practice: Ensuring EdTech Compliance
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| 2:45 – 3:00 pm ET | Break |
| 3:00 – 4:15 pm ET | How to Regulate the Black Box of AI-Created “Educational Opportunities”
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| 4:15 – 4:30 pm ET | Break |
| 4:30 – 5:30 pm ET | Beyond Parental Consent: Future Legal Models and International Harmonization
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Questions? Email us at events@pipc.tech.
And Join Our Pre-Conference Workshop!
Over the past five years, major new child privacy laws have come into effect in the U.S. and internationally. In 2025, Congress, state legislatures, and courts will continue to write the rules for protecting children online while still providing them access to valuable content, and determine how to do so without violating the Constitution. Join us on February 6th to hear from experts on one of the most hotly-debated issues of our time, with deep dives on some of the most contentious topics.
Hosted by Toyo University and co-sponsored by George Washington University Law School Center for Law and Technology and the Public Interest Privacy Center.
Pre-Conference Workshop Agenda
February 6, 12:00 - 5:30pm ET
George Washington University Law School
Washington, DC
| 11:00 – 12:00 pm ET | Registration |
| 12:00 – 12:15 pm ET | Introductory Remarks and Agenda |
| 12:15 – 1:15 pm ET | The Ever-Evolving US Child Privacy Landscape
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| 1:15 – 1:30 pm ET | Break |
| 1:30 – 2:40 pm ET | Deep Dive: Privacy by Default
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| 2:40 – 3:55 pm ET | Deep Dive: Regulating AI and Children
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| 3:55 – 4:10 pm ET | Break |
| 4:10 – 5:30 pm ET | Digital Guardians: Debating a Tech Duty of Care
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Questions? Email us at events@pipc.tech.
Speakers
Adam Billen
Adam Billen serves as the Vice President of Public Policy at Encode, where he crafts and advances Encode's policy priorities and builds bipartisan, cross-issue coalitions. Adam cares deeply about addressing both the near-term and long-term harms of AI, ensuring those priorities are reflected across our legislative work and partnerships. His work has included successfully advancing the DEFIANCE and TAKE IT DOWN Acts to combat AI-generated nudes through the Senate, passing restrictions on AI's use in nuclear weapons operations in the FY25 NDAA, and working to codify and support the AI Safety Institute.
Claire Boine
Mila Quebec
Claire Boine is a postdoctoral fellow specializing in AI law at the Washington University Law School and an AI For Humanity Fellow at Mila Quebec. Receiving a PhD in technology law from the University of Ottawa, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School, and her J.D. in EU law from Nantes University, Claire is an expert of General Purpose AI regulation and has consulted for several governments on the topic. Before the release of ChatGPT, Claire published the first law journal article arguing that GPT-3 and General Purpose AI systems were not regulated under the AI Act. She has also worked on diverse AI law topics such as AI and democracy, algorithmic bias, AI and gender, AI loyalty, and AI-enabled manipulation.
Louise DeCandia
Louise DeCandia was appointed to the position of Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) by the Commissioner of the New York State Education Department effective December 23, 2021. Ms. DeCandia has worked for the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for 19 years. Before becoming the CPO, Ms. DeCandia worked as an Associate Attorney in the Office of Counsel, a Manager in the Office of Special Education and a Manager in the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, formerly referred to as VESID. Prior to working for NYSED, she worked at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Region One office in Stony Brook, NY as a Senior Attorney for 11 years. In that position she handled numerous complicated administrative hearings, enforcing the environmental conservation law. Ms. DeCandia has her J.D. from Albany Law School and a B.S. degree from SUNY Oneonta.
Sunny Gandhi
As Vice President of Political Affairs, Sunny Gandhi led Encode’s co-sponsorship of California’s SB 1047, a landmark AI safety bill that would have required testing of advanced AI systems and created whistleblower protections. The bill passed both chambers of the state legislature with strong bipartisan margins, drawing support from an unlikely coalition including Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton, Elon Musk, and Mark Ruffalo.
He also spearheaded efforts leading to the first U.S. law establishing guardrails for AI use in nuclear weapons systems, ensuring human control while enabling security benefits. At Encode, he has coordinated campaigns to authorize and fund a U.S. AI Safety Institute and advance legislation targeting AI-generated exploitation.
His technical work includes pioneering a benchmark for testing AI legal reasoning capabilities (presented at NeurIPS) and developing systems for rapid cloud deployment of AI services. He has also published research on cross-platform information analysis at AAAI. Before Encode, he served in technical roles at NASA, Deloitte, and a nuclear energy company.
Olga Garcia-Kaplan
Olga Garcia-Kaplan is a New Jersey public school parent and passionate student data privacy advocate. She serves as the Vice President of Workplace Experience and Strategic Innovation at a business process automation firm, where she leads initiatives to enhance operational efficiency, drive innovation, and improve client experiences. Previously, she worked at a shareholder and investor services firm, specializing in compliance and SEC filings.
Dr. Imani Goffney
Dr. Imani Masters Goffney is the Chief Academic Officer of SETA-ED and an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Maryland- College Park. She earned her MA in Curriculum Development and PhD in Mathematics Education and Teaching and Teacher Education both from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on mathematics instruction and on interventions designed to improve its quality and effectiveness, especially for students not traditionally served well by our educational system. In particular, she studies the ways in which teachers use mathematical knowledge for teaching in equitable ways. Her research contributes to a growing body of work that strives to better understand the role of content knowledge for improving student achievement and expands an understanding of how issues of race, culture, and social class intersect with students’ opportunities for learning mathematics. She currently leads research projects with funding from NSF and private foundations. She recently co-edited a book published by NCTM entitled, Re-humanizing Mathematics for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Students (2018). She is an active member in AERA, NCTM, and AMTE serving in leadership roles for each of these organizations.
Teddy Hartman
Teddy Hartman is the Head of Privacy and Trust at GoGuardian, an education technology company helping create more engaging, effective, and safer learning environments. An expert on the interplay of technology, policy, and education - his unique perspective stems from his deep rooted experience in classrooms and schools, his nationally recognized leadership in student data privacy and responsible AI, and his robust understanding of product operations and strategy.
Kristina Ishmael
Kristina Ishmael is an innovative educator and advocate, leading the charge in promoting digital equity and opportunity in education. With a robust background that spans education policy, professional learning, and classroom instruction, she is deeply committed to empowering educators to effectively leverage technology, including artificial intelligence (AI). Kristina stands out as the lead for AI in education policy, focusing on ensuring AI applications are accessible, equitable, and enhance learning outcomes for all students. Her expertise also encompasses fostering inclusive learning environments where diverse voices are heard and amplified. As a thought leader and speaker, Kristina champions digital inclusion, edtech best practices, and meaningful professional learning. Her work, characterized by a passion for advancing education through technology and open educational resources, has made a significant impact on educators and learners alike, driving forward conversations on ethical AI use, digital equity, and the future of learning in a digital world.
Meg Leta Jones
Meg Leta Jones is a Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor in the Communication, Culture & Technology program at Georgetown University where she researches rules and technological change with a focus on privacy and automation. She’s also a core faculty member of the Science, Technology, and International Affairs program in Georgetown's School of Foreign Service and a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown Law Center.
Ctrl+Z: The Right to be Forgotten, Meg’s first book, is about the social, legal, and technical issues surrounding digital oblivion. Her second book project, The Character of Consent: The History of Cookies and Future of Technology Policy, tells the transatlantic history of digital consent through the lens of a familiar technical object. She's also edited a volume with Amanda Levendowski called Feminist Cyberlaw that explores how gender, race, sexuality and disability shape cyberspace and the laws that govern it.
Meg is currently developing "the new family privacy," which considers the ways changes in reproduction, education, social development, eldercare, and genealogy come together as a currently disparate but potentially powerful source of contemporary privacy practice. And also collaborates with Georgetown scholars Julie Cohen and Paul Ohm on a project to overhaul the administrative state called Redesigning the Governance Stack.
Dr. Rihoko Kawai
Dr. Rihoko Kawai holds the position of Associate Professor of Law and Technology at Toyo University's Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design (INIAD) in Tokyo, Japan. Her research focuses on the intersection of law and technology, particularly exploring regulatory approaches that balance societal well-being with advancements in IT, including AI.
Dr. Kawai’s academic work primarily revolves around children’s education in digital environments, with a special emphasis on privacy and intellectual property (IP). Her research has been featured in journals such as the Information Network Law Review and the IEICE-SITE Technical Report (primarily in Japanese). She has also authored commentary articles on U.S. privacy law and the GDPR in Japanese publications.
Collaborating across disciplines, Dr. Kawai has contributed to projects exploring the intersection of software engineering and legal frameworks, resulting in publications in journals such as the Proceedings of the International Workshop on Requirements Engineering and Law (RELAW). Additionally, Dr. Kawai has translated American academic books into Japanese, including Federal Trade Commission Privacy Law and Policy by Chris Jay Hoofnagle.
Beyond academia, Dr. Kawai has served as a member of the Japanese Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) committee, conducting research on foreign privacy laws. Her contributions have played a pivotal role in the preparation of Japanese government reports on data privacy laws, with a particular focus on the U.S., Canada, and Uruguay.
Alyson Klein
Alyson Klein is a veteran education writer who has covered K-12 schools for nearly two decades. She covers the latest developments in educational technology, including topics such personalized learning, data privacy, digital curricula, cybersecurity, and teacher professional development. She is also the lead writer for Technology Counts, Education Week’s annual report about the state of educational technology and co-editor of Education Week’s Leaders to Learn From. Klein has appeared on NPR, PBS, and C-SPAN to discuss education news.
Sara Kloek
Sara Kloek previously served as the senior privacy and technology fellow at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of the Chief Privacy Officer. Much of her time there was spent leading interagency discussions and subsequent negotiations related to guidance on student privacy and educational technology. Prior to her fellowship, she led the development of privacy and transparency best practices for apps for children and served as an education policy advisor to a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sara is an International Association of Privacy Professionals Certified Information Privacy Professional/United States (CIPP/US) and recently authored a chapter on student privacy in IAPP’s “Children Privacy and Safety” book. She is an enthusiastic advocate for education technology, clear privacy policies, and bees.
Amanda Lenhart
Amanda Lenhart is a senior fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop and a long-time mixed methods researcher who has spent the bulk of her career studying how children and families use and think about networked technologies. Previously, Amanda served as the Head of Research at Common Sense Media, where she led research on youth mental health and social media, the role of smartphones and generative AI in the daily lives of adolescents. In her role as the Program Director for Health & Data at the Data & Society Research Institute, Amanda worked on topics including how social media company workers think about and enact digital well-being for kids in the product design process. She started her career at the Pew Research Center, helping to found the Internet team where she pioneered and led their research on teens and families for 16 years.
Amanda specializes in translating rigorous research for a broad national audience. Dedicated to public communication, she has testified before congressional subcommittees and the Federal Trade Commission. Amanda’s work has been featured in numerous national publications and broadcasts, including the New York Times, PBS Newshour and NPR’s All Things Considered.
Amanda currently serves on the Technical Advisory Panel to the American Academy of Pediatrics Center on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, as an advisor to the Technology and Adolescent Mental Wellness initiative at the University of Wisconsin Department of Pediatrics, and as an advisor to the Adolescent Health Advisory Panel for the US Department of Health and Human Services. For the past 8 years, she has advised the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the development of Unseen Connections, an exhibit designed to help young people explore the natural and social history of the cell phone that launched in November 2023.
Miles Light
Better Business Bureau
Miles Light is an attorney and technologist working across Privacy Initiatives at BBB National Programs, currently serving as the Senior Counsel of Youth Privacy & Technology in the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU). Before joining BBB National Programs, Miles worked at the Future of Privacy Forum on privacy and data protection issues related to Children, Education, and Smart Cities. Miles has a particular interest in children’s online safety, Privacy Enhancing Technologies, and copyright issues surrounding Generative AI. Miles is a 2023-2025 Internet Law & Policy Foundry Fellow. Before becoming an attorney, Miles was a librarian. He is still happiest when talking about books.
Duncan McCann
Duncan McCann is Head of Tech Litigation at the Good Law Project where he runs legal campaigns to hold public and private sector users of technology and data accountable. Prior to that he was Head of Accountability at 5 Rights Foundation where he worked to ensure companies respect children’s rights in the online world. Duncan has a legal background, and over a decade in both tech industry and NGO worlds.
Noelle Ellerson Ng
Noelle Ellerson Ng joined AASA in 2007 as a policy analyst. As associate executive director, she directs the advocacy and governance efforts of AASA. In this role she spearheads the organization’s federal advocacy work with Congress and the U.S. Department of Education; she oversees the organization’s survey, research, and policy analysis work; she manages the organization’s governance work, including direct support and management for the executive committee and governing board, as well as our 49 chartered state affiliates; and she oversees the AASA Student and Child Privacy Center.
She speaks regularly on federal education policy to school leaders across the country. Before coming to AASA, Ellerson Ng was a high school special education teacher in Central New York. She worked in state-level advocacy for the College Board while earning her master’s degree.
Clarence Okoh
Georgetown Law
Clarence Okoh is a civil and human rights attorney working at the intersection of race, technology, and the law. His work examines the role of emerging technologies in producing racial injustice, with a focus on algorithmic discrimination, scientific racism, and the surveillance of Black and brown communities. He is currently the Senior Attorney at the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology, where he leads research and advocacy projects addressing race science & genetic surveillance, policing & carceral technologies, and digital pushout & youth surveillance in schools and community settings. He is a co-founder of the No Tech Criminalization in Education Coalition (NOTICE) and a founding member of the PASCO Coalition, where he developed legal and policy strategies to shut down one of the first operational predictive policing programs in a school setting in the United States. Clarence was previously a litigator with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and an inaugural member of the Just Tech Fellowship hosted by the Social Science Research Council. Clarence frequently engages diverse audiences on society and technology topics through campaigns, workshops, lectures, and published work. His work has been featured across a range of outlets, including Politico, Vice, The Nation, Fast Company, the 74, and Education Week, among others.
Nichole Rocha
Nichole Rocha is the principal at Rocha Public Affairs. She brings with her extensive knowledge of the legislative process and technology policy. Most recently as the Head of 5Rights US, Nichole helped secure the unanimous passage of the Age Appropriate Design Code in two states. Prior to that she served as Chief Consultant to the California Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee and as Counsel to the California Senate Judiciary Committee. Nichole received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Berkeley and her Juris Doctor from UC Davis.
David Sallay
David Sallay currently works as the Director of Data Privacy at Access 4 Learning (A4L). Prior to this, he worked as the Director for Youth & Education Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and as the Chief Privacy Officer and the Student Privacy Auditor at the Utah State Board of Education, where he worked with schools and districts on implementing Utah’s state student privacy law and was well known for his work on a series of videos explaining FERPA. Before focusing on privacy, he worked in education as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language at Qatar University and at high schools in Hungary. He holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Utah and a Masters in Education from the University of Pittsburgh.
Jim Siegl
Jim Siegl, CIPT, is a Senior Technologist with the Youth & Education Privacy team. For nearly two decades prior to joining FPF, Jim was a Technology Architect for the Fairfax County Public School District with a focus on privacy, security, identity management, interoperability, and learning management systems. He was a co-author of the CoSN Privacy Toolkit and the Trusted Learning Environment (TLE) seal program and holds a Master of Science in the Management of Information Technology from the University of Virginia.
Ava Smithing
Ava Smithing is the Director of Advocacy and Operations at the Young People's Alliance, a youth-led non-profit focused on leveraging youth perspectives into conversation about policy that affects them. Before graduating she worked with YPA in the North Carolina state legislature to introduce NC HR 644, a minor centered data privacy bill and was also a contributor on research projects relating to the 4th amendment right to privacy in the digital age. After graduating from Stevens Institute of Technology (with a bachelor of Business Administration with concentrations on the History and Philosophy of Technology and management with a minor in public policy) she immediately began working full time at the Young People's Alliance. She is currently working with congressional offices to strengthen users' protections from social media companies through data privacy legislation. Ava is from Nashville, Tennessee and is currently based in DC.
Emily Tabatabai
Emily S. Tabatabai is a partner and founding member of Orrick’s global Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation Group. She has been recognized by Chambers USA as “an invaluable resource to have when it comes to data privacy and security,” particularly in matters involving state privacy laws, education technology (EdTech) and children’s privacy.
Emily provides strategic counseling and advice on privacy, consumer protection and online safety matters to clients across industries, including retail, ecommerce, mobile apps, gaming, social media, advertising technology (adtech), financial services, education, business services and technology. She also represents clients subject to regulatory investigations, including before the FTC and States Attorneys General, Congressional committees and other regulatory agencies and groups.
Emily provides proactive compliance guidance, and regulatory investigation defense, on a variety of privacy and consumer protection laws and is a frequent speaker on data privacy matters, with a particular focus on children’s privacy (COPPA), student data privacy and EdTech and online safety laws for kids and teens. She has been featured as an “Up and Coming” Privacy & Data Security attorney by Chambers USA and Chambers Global. Clients tell Chambers, “She’s been an excellent partner. She has a very good understanding of the practical realities of implementing privacy policies for large companies.” Citing her expertise in the field of educational privacy, student data and EdTech matters, Chambers reports that clients regard her as “very knowledgeable and truly an expert in this space,” with some saying, “On the student data side, she is unmatched,” and The Legal 500 notes that Emily “is the first port of call for child- and student-directed service providers for compliance advice with COPPA, SOPIPA and CalOPPA regulations.”
Shino Uenuma
Shino Uenuma bio still to come.
Amelia Vance
Amelia Vance, the Founder and President of the Public Interest Privacy Center, has been a leader in the child and student privacy space for over a decade, spearheading student privacy programs at the Future of Privacy Forum and the National Association of State Boards of Education. She has testified before Congress and state legislatures, regularly publishes articles and resources, and is frequently quoted by the press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Politico. Vance is also Co-Chair of the Federal Education Privacy Coalition with AASA, the School Superintendents Association, and an adjunct professor of privacy law at William & Mary Law School.
Cody Venzke
Cody Venzke is a Senior Policy Counsel in the ACLU's National Political Advocacy Department, working on issues in surveillance, privacy, and technology. Cody focuses on comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, safe and nondiscriminatory AI, children's privacy, and civic uses of data. He is an author of a treatise published by LexisNexis on education data and student privacy.
Prior to joining the ACLU, Cody worked as a Senior Counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology, where he worked on student privacy and civic technology. He also served as an Attorney Advisor and Honors Attorney at the Federal Communications Commission and clerked for federal judges on the Third Circuit and the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Cody previously worked as a litigator with an international law firm, where he served clients in emerging technologies such as clean energy, medicine, and media. In his pro bono work, Cody has represented tenants in eviction actions and assisted applicants under the U visa program. Prior to starting his law career, Cody taught math at a large public high school in Houston, Texas through Teach For America.
Elana Zeide
Elana Zeide is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska's College of Law. She teaches, writes, and consults about children's and students' privacy, artificial intelligence, and the modern day "permanent record." Zeide critically explores the impact of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence on individuals' well-being, education, and equity.
Her research emphasizes the crucial role of effective data governance in protecting students, children, and democratic values in an increasingly digital world. Recent publications focus on the pedagogical and privacy implications of online proctoring and constant school surveillance, the challenges posed by haphazard adoption of artificial intelligence in learning, admissions, and hiring systems, and the shortcomings of current student and child privacy regulation. Forthcoming work examines recent efforts by schools and policymakers to protect privacy through social media laws, amending federal privacy statutes, and enacting "parents' bill of rights" legislation.
Zeide previously served as a PULSE Fellow in Artificial Intelligence, Law & Policy at UCLA's School of Law, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Seton Hall University’s School of Law, an Associate Research fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy, a Visiting Fellow at Yale School of Law’s Information Society Project, and a Microsoft Research Fellow at New York University's Information Law Institute. She is also an affiliate at Data & Society Research Institute and serves on advisory boards for The Future of Privacy Forum, Macmillan Learning’s Impact Research Advisory Council, and Blackboard’s Taskforce to Develop Framework and Standards for the Ethical and Legal Use of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education.
Cobun Zweifel-Keegan
Cobun Zweifel-Keegan is the Managing Director for Washington, D.C. of IAPP, a global nonprofit professional association. Through this role, Cobun works to integrate the diverse voices of privacy professionals and AI governance professionals into the evolving tech policy conversation, engaging with business representatives, civil society, policymakers, and federal government stakeholders. As a privacy and consumer protection lawyer, Cobun writes and speaks frequently about the ongoing policy conversation around responsible data governance, with a special focus on the role of professionals and independent accountability mechanisms in the spread of privacy best practices.
Prior to his current role, Cobun advised independent mechanisms at BBB National Programs that bring accountability and transparency to business privacy practices through voluntary—but enforceable—frameworks like Privacy Shield and the Cross-Border Privacy Rules. Through this work, Cobun also facilitated the development of new programs to clarify best practices in emerging areas such as youth privacy and the use of AI systems in the employment context. Cobun is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law and previously served at the IAPP as a Westin Research Fellow.