Elisa Ertl

Elisa's path to becoming a Datavyst feels like a wild card. With an academic background in Social and Cultural Anthropology and International Security, and nearly a decade working in refugee and migration contexts, data science and AI might not seem like the obvious next step. But while researching humanitarian legal concerns around lethal autonomous weapon systems — AI making critical targeting decisions — Elisa discovered a passion for the intersection of human rights and technology.

That passion grew when she led the pilot of an algorithm for more equitable refugee allocation in Europe, overseeing co-design, implementation, and evaluation. The success of this project brought Elisa into conversations with EU commissioners, national ministers, and academic audiences about deploying data-driven solutions for the common good.

Achievements

• Led a project that brought together technology, humanitarian work, and policy to turn a complex problem into a practical, data-informed solution.
• Completed a Master of Laws with no previous academic legal training.
• Served on a civilian search and rescue boat in the Mediterranean Sea.
• Hiked the Camino di Santiago and the Waitukubuli Trail.
•  Authored multiple publications on data-driven matching of refugees and cities, like a handbook for practitioners - which are widely used by policy makers and researchers.

In my own words…
Being a Datavyst is about bringing people, data, and ideas together in ways that make an impact beyond a single project and shaping solutions that could actually change how communities and institutions solve problems.