Megan Price

Megan Price (@StatMegan) is the Executive Director of Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that applies rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations  — to help advocates advance three goals: accountability for perpetrators, justice for victims, and systemic changes. Her work, and that of the organization, is always focused on answering the question “Who did what to whom?” with the most accurate truth possible. San Francisco-based HRDAG’s work has been the foundation of statistical claims about mass violence by truth commissions, UN missions, NGOs, and war crimes prosecutors in more than 30 countries.

Megan leads a team of experts in machine learning, applied and mathematical statistics, computer science, demography and social science who use cutting-edge data science techniques to uncover evidence that might otherwise be hidden by incomplete or “unfriendly” documentation.  Historically, HRDAG’s work has supported international investigations and transitional justice efforts. Recently, Megan has expanded the organization’s focus to include law enforcement misconduct in the United States. Advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, combined with dramatically expanded access to police complaint and arrest records, Border Patrol and ICE apprehension reports, and SWAT after-action reports have created an opportunity to identify patterns of law enforcement misconduct, which can support advocates’ pursuit of accountability.

Her scientific work includes analyzing documents from the National Police Archive in Guatemala, collaborating with the Office of the UN High Commission of Human Rights and Amnesty International on conflict-related deaths in Syria, and analyses of pre-trial supervision “risk assessment” models used in the U.S. She is a member of the Technical Advisory Board for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, chair of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human rights, and a Research Fellow at the Carnegie Mellon University Center for Human Rights Science. She is the Human Rights Editor for the Statistical Journal of the International Association for Official Statistics, and on the editorial board of Significance magazine. She earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics and a certificate in human rights from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She also holds a master of science and bachelor of science in statistics from Case Western Reserve University.

Megan has authored or co-authored more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles and co-authored four books on the use of data science in the quest for justice. She has been quoted as an expert in numerous U.S. and international publications, and is a sought-after speaker/lecturer (Google DeepMind, Skoll World Forum, Strata+Hadoop World Conference, PyData, Heidelberg Laureate Forum, Stanford University, Emory University, Vassar College, Case Western Reserve University). She educates human rights colleagues, organizers, journalists and public defenders via online webinars, a blog and YouTube videos. She is articulate, insightful, and at-ease translating complicated data science techniques into readily-understandable human rights work.