Chelsea Collier

Chelsea Collier convenes people across sectors to focus on how technology can be applied to civic and social challenges for the social good. She is Founder of Digi.City and Editor-At-Large for Smart Cities Connect. She is pursuing her PhD at University of Texas - Austin's (UT) School of Information, where her research focuses on the intersection of public engagement and ethical AI expressed through human-robot interaction. Additionally, Collier is a graduate research assistant for the Smart Hand Tools project, which is a part of the UT Good Systems Grand Challenge, a multidisciplinary research team focused on the use of smart hand tools to support the middle skill workforce.

Collier's experience in government, economic development, social enterprise and tech entrepreneurship informs her cross sector approach. She created Digi.City as a blog in 2016 to share the learnings and experiences of her Eisenhower Fellowship on smart cities in the U.S. and China. Over the years, Digi.City evolved along with the smart city movement and provided what the sector called for by sharing information, hosting events, and developing tools for smart city leaders around the world. In 2023, Digi.City became registered as a nonprofit organization in Texas in order to continue the mission of educational and collaboration activities for global stakeholders interested in the ethical design and deployment of smart city technology for the social good.

Collier received her MS and BS degrees from the College of Communications at UT. She is a University of Manchester (UK) Fellow, a Marshall Memorial Fellow and an Eisenhower Fellow. Her work has been featured in Inc.com, Venture Beat, Governing Magazine, Chicago Tribune, among other media.