Julie M. Wenah is a global product leader, digital civil rights lawyer, tech executive, and award-winning filmmaker who has led teams and launched products, policies, and legislation advancing equity across both public and private sectors. She is widely recognized for her  pioneering work at the intersection of civil rights, technology, and innovation.

Julie currently serves as Chairwoman of the Digital Civil Rights Coalition, a global community of academics, artists, attorneys, business leaders, organizers, and technologists committed to shaping a more just and inclusive digital ecosystem. She also serves on the board of Women in Product, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding leadership opportunities for women in product management.

Julie was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council, where she co-chaired the Innovation and Access Working Group, leading national  trategies to expand digital equity and opportunity for historically underserved communities. Her work consistently bridges civil rights with emerging technologies, ensuring that AI and machine learning systems are built and deployed with fairness and accountability.

At Meta, Julie held the dual role of Associate General Counsel and Product & Accessibility Lead for Civil Rights, where she created Project Height, a proactive equity framework to support inclusive product development, coupled with a scholarship and leadership program offering over a quarter million dollars in funding and technical curriculum for the next generation of civil rights and technology leaders. She also led civil rights efforts for Meta’s Race Data Measurement initiative, a privacy-centric framework designed to analyze how race-related factors shape machine learning system performance and user experiences, helping drive fairness across large-scale AI models.

In a separate role, she served as Global Product Owner for Meta’s implementation of the European Accessibility Act across its customer care infrastructure, overseeing the company’s global strategy to ensure accessibility compliance and equitable user service.

Before joining Meta, Julie served as Community Senior Counsel and Acting Regional Counsel for Africa. She drove inclusive product and legal strategy across the platform, launching interventions like Profile Photo Removal and Project Lighthouse, an award winning, privacy-first framework built in collaboration with civil rights organizations. Project Lighthouse identified and addressed racial disparities in guest experiences, and directly informed Airbnb’s mission to reduce bias through systemic, machine learning informed solutions/interventions.

Julie’s foundation in public service spans nearly a decade. She served as Counselor and Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where she led President Obama’s manufacturing communities agenda.

Earlier, as Special Assistant to the General Counsel, she helped develop regulatory frameworks and technical assistance to support U.S.-Africa energy and trade agreements. At the White House, she was a Vetting Attorney for Presidential Boards and Commissions and began her federal policy career in the Office of First Lady Michelle Obama, where she supported programming and later helped lead set design for We Will Rise, a CNN documentary focused on girls' education in Liberia.

Julie was also a Legal Fellow at NASA, where she supported the bio-nanotechnology center’s flight and ground experiments on the STS-129 mission.

She holds a B.S. from Lamar University, a J.D./M.P.A. from Texas Southern University, and an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. She also earned a certificate from the Harvard Law School Executive Education Program.

In addition to her civic and product leadership, Julie is a  multidisciplinary filmmaker and creative producer. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, and healing through visual storytelling, music, and immersive experiences. She is the Founder of The Album & The Mixtape, a creative collective dedicated to storytelling through lyrics and prose. Her films (Home and Rain to Reign) reflect on the complexities of personal and collective identity, maternal lineage, spiritual traditions, and the land we call home. Julie’s artistry is informed by her family’s lived experience with immigration and her deep belief in amplifying voices at the margins.