Ms. Dorothy Gordon is a Board member of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education. She has worked in the field of international development and technology for over thirty years and is recognised as a leading technology activist and specialist concentrating on policy, education, technology, gender and society in Africa. Her work as a leader, manager, consultant and speaker has taken her to over 100 countries. She is a strong advocate of the ROAM principles (internet universality), building on her work with the Open Movement and Creative Commons. Her current work centers on responsible AI that respects equal rights for the global majority with a special focus on the rights of children.
Leveraging her government, corporate, civil society and UN policy and management experience she currently works as an advisor and management consultant. Previously, as the founding Director-General of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, she strategically positioned the centre as a leading technology training and consulting partner on the African continent. During her tenure she actively encouraged greater participation of women in STEM, supported Ghana’s start-up economy and built global tech partnerships to complement South-South cooperation with India. She served as a senior manager with UNDP in India and held other management and specialist positions in Geneva, New York and Zambia.
She mentors, volunteers, serves on governing boards and award juries with a number of local and global initiatives working to define a better technology mediated future. These include Creative Commons, Linux Professional Institute, 5 RightsFoundation, Yidan Foundation, W20, and the World Summit Awards.
She holds degrees from the University of Ghana and the University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies where she trained as a development economist. She works in both English and French.