Kelly Born

Kelly Born is the Director of the Cyber Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. She leads a ten-year, $130 million grantmaking effort that aims to build a more robust cybersecurity field and improve policymaking. Previously, Kelly served as the founding director of Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center. Before that, she was a Program Officer for the Madison Initiative at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, an eight-year, $150 million portfolio focused on improving U.S. democracy. Kelly oversaw Madison’s grantmaking on campaigns and elections, and digital disinformation.

Before that, Kelly worked as a strategy consultant with the Monitor Institute, a nonprofit consulting firm, where she supported strategic planning efforts at a number of foundations. Earlier in her career, she consulted with nonprofits, the private sector, and governments in the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe.

Kelly regularly writes about digital disinformation’s negative impact on democracy and elections. She also serves on the board of the Cyber Peace Institute, which works to ensure the rights of people to security, dignity, and equity in cyberspace.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in economics from Pepperdine University and a master’s degree in international policy studies from Stanford University.