My work has been covered in places like The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, Motherboard, Newsweek, Boston Globe, and CBC.
I’m not on social media.
Mail me: chelsea [dot] barabas @ gmail [dot] com
I’m a researcher and strategist focused on how AI and emerging technologies are actually taken up inside public and frontline institutions—and what it takes to shape those systems in practice.
My work sits at the intersection of research, policy, and implementation. Over the past decade, I’ve partnered with governments, school leaders, and nonprofit organizations to design technology initiatives, develop evaluation and governance frameworks, and translate complex ideas into usable strategies. I’ve held roles at the MIT Media Lab and currently work through Edgelands Institute and the University of Texas at Austin.
I’m particularly interested in the gap in how technologies are designed and how they are used: how decisions get made, where constraints show up, and where there is real opportunity to influence outcomes. I work with organizations to navigate that complexity—connecting technical systems to institutional goals, operational realities, and longer-term strategy.
More broadly, my work focuses on building the capacity of institutions to engage with AI in ways that are grounded, adaptive, and aligned with the people they serve.
***NOTE***
This site is currently under construction as I take time to archive all the fun projects I’ve had the opportunity to be part of over the last few years. Leaving up my (slightly outdated) Publications and Talks tab if you want to peruse past work in the meantime.
Updates expected to go live sometime in May 2026. Stay tuned!