Liana Keesing

Liana Keesing is the Policy Manager for Technology Reform at Issue One, where she leads the organization’s agenda at the intersection of democracy and emerging technology across both federal and state levels. A trained engineer turned policy advocate, Liana excels at translating complex technical issues for policymakers and the public. Since joining Issue One in April 2024, her work on national security and tech reform has been featured in The Washington Post, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, MIT Policy Press, Politico, Axios, and more.

Before joining Issue One, Liana served as an HAI Fellow and Research Assistant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC), where she helped shape legislation on topics such as AI procurement, deepfakes, and federal AI governance. Her contributions to the AI LEAD Act and related hearings helped inform Section 10 of President Biden’s Executive Order 14110 on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development of AI.

Liana holds both her B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where she focused on systems architecture for emerging technologies like AI, quantum and photonic computing, and IoT hardware. As a systems engineer, she co-founded and served as CTO of a startup aimed at improving situational awareness for tactical-level soldiers, developed behavioral programming for the U.S. Navy’s first autonomous ship “Seahunter,” and conducted research on machine learning applications in hardware microarchitecture. She also earned a minor in physics and honors in ethics for a thesis exploring how smart home surveillance technologies, such as Ring doorbells, alter privacy norms in American neighborhoods and what that shift means for democracy.

Beyond the lab and the policy arena, Liana has long been committed to civic engagement. She led StanfordVotes during the 2020 election and co-founded Stanford’s Democracy Day, chairing the campus-wide effort in 2022 and 2023. A three-year team captain of Stanford’s Division I varsity fencing team, she was named a Truman Scholar in 2022 for her leadership, academic achievement, and dedication to public service.