Rachel Ankerholz

I think about who gets included, and who gets left behind, when we build systems.

As Director of IT at the Midwest Political Science Association, I manage digital infrastructure supporting 5,500+ researchers and 45,000+ scholars globally. I think about access, security, and what happens when systems fail the people they’re supposed to serve.

But my work doesn’t stop at implementation.

I write about AI ethics, democratic participation in technology development, and the question of who actually gets a voice in shaping the tools that increasingly shape all of us. AI is being built on all of us. I think we should have a say in how it works.

This newsletter explores:

• AI accountability: Who’s responsible when autonomous agents act on our behalf?

• Invisible systems: How AI shapes us in ways we don’t notice

• Ethics as architecture: Building values into systems from the start, not bolting them on after

• Sovereignty and control: Where AI runs determines who benefits from the learning

I’m writing The Tilled Mind, a trauma-informed healing framework that treats recovery the way an engineer treats structural repair. Some of that work will show up here too.

If you’re asking who gets to shape the systems that shape us, and whether we can do better, I hope you’ll join me.

See all my work, projects, and ways to connect at rachelankerholz.com.