Team

Mala Kumar (she/her) is a global leader in technology for social good. She joined Humane Intelligence in March 2025 as the Head of Impact, and stepped into the role of Interim Executive Director in August 2025. Previously, Mala was the Director of Program Management, AI Safety at MLCommons, where she was part of the core team that launched its inaugural AI safety benchmark. While the Director of Tech for Social Good at GitHub, Mala created and led five programs in open source software for social good. For nearly a decade, Mala worked in UX research and design at the United Nations and in INGOs. She is a former Senior Advisor to the World Health Organization. Mala has extensive experience working in four continents, in both English and French. She regularly travels abroad to speak and conduct field research. Mala holds a B.S. in Marketing Management from Virginia Tech and an M.A. in International Affairs from The New School. Separate from her tech work, Mala is the author of two novels. Her second, What it Meant to Survive, was published on October 1, 2024. She lives in New York City.

Theodora (Theo) Skeadas (she/her) joined Humane Intelligence in February 2024, and currently serves as the Head of Red Teaming. Previously at Twitter, she managed the Trust and Safety Council, a research hub within the Public Policy team, and a trusted flaggers program for human rights defenders, and she supported Twitter’s global civic integrity, transparency, and crisis response efforts. Before, she worked in national security at Booz Allen Hamilton, examining public sentiment, social movements, and disinformation using social media for the U.S. Federal Government. Previously, she worked with nonprofits in Morocco, Turkey, Greece, and Costa Rica. She has an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from Harvard College. She has language experience in French, Modern Greek, Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Turkish, Moroccan Arabic, and Spanish.

Dr. Julie Hollek (she/her) is the Head of Engineering at Humane Intelligence. She is a data practitioner with a background in Data Science, trust and safety, and open source scientific computing. She serves as the chair of the NumFOCUS board of directors and was the co-chair of the SciPy Conference from 2023-2025. In previous roles, Julie was the Director of Data Science at Mozilla where she led the DS organization. At Twitter, she built the Health Data Science team and is a subject matter expert at the intersection where trust and safety meets data. In 2023, Julie was a Governance in Online Speech Leadership Series Fellow. Throughout her career, Julie has been committed to improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging by community-building. She founded Neustar Women in Technology, supporting women technologists both internally and externally; was a PyLadies San Francisco organizer; co-founded MozAPI, the Asian Pacific Islander employee resource group at Mozilla; and previously served on NumFOCUS’ Diversity & Inclusion in Scientific Computing (DISC) committee. Julie earned her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bianca Gay (she/her) is the Grants and Finance Director at Humane Intelligence, where she ensures the numbers add up behind the scenes. She brings diverse experience in growth, grants, and non-profit governance across the tech, international development, and disability sectors. Bianca is also an advocate for digital rights and privacy, with a focus on image-based abuse and tech-facilitated abuse. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Electronic Frontiers Australia. Bianca holds a Master’s in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam where she wrote her thesis on Automation and the Future of Work in Ethiopia and previously studied Philosophy at the University of Queensland. While English is her primary language, she is also engaged in a multi-year struggle to learn Modern Standard Arabic. Bianca is based in Berlin, Germany.

Maria DiFonzo (she/her) is the Communications Lead with Humane Intelligence. She is an accomplished marketing and communications professional focused on engaging multicultural audiences through impactful work on social and digital platforms. Mission-driven personally and professionally, her strategic perspective has earned her roles on global campaigns, helping clients achieve their goals in the corporate and non-profit sectors. Maria has managed and inspired multidisciplinary teams around the globe to advance vaccine research against COVID-19 with the Coronavirus Prevention Network and HIV with the HIV Vaccine Trials Network. She has worked with the San Francisco Department of Health, Nissan North America, Infiniti, Ford Motor Company, Ferrero (Nutella, Kinder, Tic Tac, Raffaello), and Amazon. Additionally, she has contributed to partnerships with the UEFA Champions League, Manchester City, the BET Awards, the Latin Grammys, Disney, and the Mexican National Team. Maria has a six-year communications degree from the University of Buenos Aires and speaks Spanish, French, and Italian.

Adarsh Jha (he/him) is a software developer at Humane Intelligence. He has a strong passion for the MERN Stack, Next.js, and integrating GenAI with web applications. Currently in his third year as a Computer Science undergraduate, Adarsh has already gained valuable experience by working with an Indian startup, where he contributed to developing an AI-powered career roadmap generator. While still early in his professional journey, Adarsh has been consistently building and refining his own projects, showcasing his dedication and enthusiasm for the field.