Renée DiResta is the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, where she studies abuse in information technologies, investigating the spread of narratives across social and media networks, with an interest in user behavior, factional crowd dynamics, and the ways in which actors leverage these systems to exert influence.

Renee led multiple investigations and presented public testimony on multi-year efforts and influence operations of Russian actors in the 2016 presidential election. She’s gone on to advise Congress, the state Department, and other academic, civil society, and business organizations on terrorist activity and state-sponsored information warfare.

Renée also speaks and writes regularly about technology policy as a contributor at Wired and The Atlantic. Her work has been featured or covered by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Yale Review, Fast Company, Politico, TechCrunch, Wired, Slate, Forbes, Buzzfeed, The Economist and the Journal of Commerce. She also appeared in the documentary The Social Dilemma.

Before all this she ran research, marketing and business development at a couple startups, and before still worked in venture capital and quant finance.

Renée is the author of The Hardware Startup: Building your Product, Business, and Brand, published by O’Reilly Media. She also has degrees in Computer Science and Political Science from the Honors College at Stony Brook University. In her free time, she’s the co-founder of the parent advocacy organization Vaccinate California and raises 3 children.