Elisabeth Sylvan

Dr. Elisabeth Sylvan’s lifelong interest is in sociotechnical systems that support creative acts, learning, and human flourishing.

Before coming to Olin, Dr. Sylvan worked for universities, nonprofits, and herself as a consultant. Most recently Dr Sylvan has taught courses on generative AI, entrepreneurship, and tech policy at the School of Engineering at Brown University, the Department of Architecture and Design at Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of Politics and Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich. Previously, Dr. Sylvan served in executive leadership at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she led programs like the BKC Research Sprints, the Summer Institute, the Co-designing Generative Futures initiative, and Digital Self Determination. Earlier in her career, Dr. Sylvan was the Vice President of Education at The Tech Interactive in Silicon Valley, Maker in Residence at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College, Fellow and Director of Learning and Community at Manylabs, and a Researcher Scientist and Project Director at the education R&D nonprofit, TERC.

Dr. Sylvan's work has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Omidyar Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Mercator Foundation, and the Research Council of Norway, among others.

She is an associate editor of the Critical AI journal, an expert advisor on the AI Policy Observatory and has served as a reviewer for multiple conferences including Interaction Design for Children (IDC), International Conference on the Learning Sciences, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Creativity & Cognition, Internet Research (IR) conference, Computer Human Interaction (CHI), among others. Dr. Sylvan’s M.S. and Ph.D. are from the MIT Media Lab where her work addressed how sociotechnical systems support shared knowledge and group action. There, Dr. Sylvan received fellowships from Highlands and Islands (of Scotland, 2005-2006) and Media Lab Europe (2003-2004.)