Lauren Damme, Ph.D.

Lauren K. Damme, Ph.D. serves as a Senior Fellow at the Data Foundation, supporting initiatives at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), evaluation and evidence-building. Dr. Damme is an internationally-recognized expert in AI and public policy evaluation, forced labor and human trafficking with over 20 years of experience in 30+ countries leading global research initiatives to advance evidence-building and human rights in government, think tanks, multilaterals and the private sector.

In her full-time role, Lauren is the Director of Innovation in Evaluation & Research at the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL’s) Chief Evaluation Office*, where she supports the Department's work on AI evaluation and the use of AI in social science research. She also holds research, advisory and faculty appointments at the AI Evaluation non-profit Humane Intelligence, the University of Nottingham's Rights Lab, and at the George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School, where she teaches graduate courses on public policy evaluation, AI and social science research. In over 14 years at DOL, Lauren has previously served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Director of Research for the Chief Evaluation Office, Mansfield Fellow to the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Evaluation Bureau, and Senior Evaluation Research Advisor for the International Bureau’s Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking. In public, she has overseen more than 150 evaluations and prevalence studies supporting $14B in federal programming across 30+ countries focused on labor issues, human rights, and social services. In 2024, Lauren earned the Secretary's Distinguished Career Service Award for her contributions to the Department’s mission. She holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Program Evaluation from George Washington University, an M.Sc. in International Development Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is the author of several book chapters and articles on applied generative AI use in social science research, and a forthcoming book on the forced labor of migrant domestic workers (Springer International).

Follow her on LinkedIn to stay up to date on her most recent research: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurendamme/

* The views presented here are her own and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the U.S. Department of Labor.