Greta Byrum
Greta Byrum, Present Moment's founder and principal, is an expert in technologies for digital opportunity, resilience, safety, wellbeing, and imagination. Her approach centers on designing technologies that serve democratic, equitable, and local needs.
She was the inaugural director of the Just Tech Program at the Social Science Research Council, director of The Digital Equity Laboratory at The New School, and co-founder and director of the organization Community Tech New York.
Greta's work focuses on building infrastructure and technological self-determination with communities to combat digital exclusion, surveillance, and extraction in data-driven systems. She has contributed extensively to research on digital governance, including risks to vulnerable populations and pathways to collective action.
Greta is a Hudson Valley mom and a practitioner of Zen Buddhism in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Digital Opportunity Leadership
As a Loeb Fellow, Benton Institute Fellow, former director of the Digital Equity Laboratory, Community Tech NY, and New America's Resilient Communities Program, Greta creates meaningful broadband access and community-centered, locally-governed technology initiatives.
Community Wireless & Resilience
Her research and on-the-ground work with communities in NY, Detroit, Appalachian Tennessee, and elsewhere emphasize co-designing wireless tools and networks to build local power, rather than relying solely on corporate or state-controlled infrastructure.
Digital Governance & Risk
Greta has authored reports on digital risk assessment and policy recommendations, exploring how new technologies impact marginalized communities in contexts like the U.S. Census and online safety under the Digital Equity Act, as well as AI guidance and policy.
Steering and Governing Ethical AI
Her most recent Present Moment pedagogy and workshop model offers affected communities a voice in AI’s evolution and governance to affirm humanity and create, protect, and sustain the worlds we wish to live within.
Résumé