ForHumanity Fellow – Data Management and Healthcare

Marcia Drake is an award-winning data leader with more than 25 years of pioneering experience, including nearly 25 years in government data leadership across federal, state, local, and tribal contexts, along with work in private-sector and nonprofit organizations, including Microsoft Global Security. A statistician and data scientist by foundation, she advanced through hands-on technical and analytical roles — including state data quality coordinator, database manager, collision technician, and crime and intelligence analyst — before serving as Chief Data Officer. She brings expertise in AI, data science, statistics, data governance, data quality, data management, analytics, responsible AI, and executive data strategy.

Marcia has built, protected, and governed critical data infrastructures across sensitive and life-impacting domains, including public safety, transportation, law enforcement, judicial systems, toxicology, children’s data, healthcare, climate, biometrics, GIS, video analytics, and cybersecurity-relevant data risk. Her governance work has contributed directly to U.S. national public safety and technical data standards, influential data policies and legislation, and federal audit coordination for statewide, cross-agency public safety and transportation data ecosystems. She has also served as national chair of a Technical Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Marcia is the Founder and CEO of Ecoheart, a global speaker with Turner Speaks, and an advisor to AI and Faith. She has been named “Data Leader of the Year” by Women in Data and featured on CDO Magazine’s “Global Data Power Women List.” She is an Oxford-certified AI Professional, AI Ethicist, and AI Auditor; a certified Futurist in Natural Foresight by TFSX; and a trained anthropologist. Across her work with ForHumanity and beyond, Marcia’s mission is to uplift humanity and save lives through responsible, trustworthy, and human-centered data and AI.