Official Story
Will is the Senior Technologist in Elections and Democracy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, where he works to ensure that American elections are fair, accessible, and secure. Before joining CDT, Will worked on tech issues in the office of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. He also worked at the Princeton Gerrymandering Project at Princeton University, advancing the causes of redistricting reform and open election data. He has published pieces in numerous peer-reviewed journals and popular press outlets, including the New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, and Scientific American. Will holds a BA in Psychology from Carleton College and a PhD in Neuroscience from New York University.
Unofficial Story
Will took a fascination to the mind when he took AP Psychology in high school. At his quirky liberal arts college, he majored in psychology but had a lot more fun in his studio art classes. Despite an aptitude for math and a lifelong interest in computers, he avoided math and computer science courses in a foolish attempt to transcend his nerdiness and hang out with the cool art kids. After college, he worked in a neuroscience lab to see if it was something he could see himself doing as a career; he liked it, and so he applied to grad school. He started school at NYU, thinking that behavioral electrophysiology was going to be his thing. After starting a rotation with the one lab that interested him at NYU, it quickly became clear that it was not a good fit. He became panicked that grad school wasn't going to work out for him. He was also intimidated by his fellow grad students, who all seemed to be mathematical and programming geniuses - seemingly a prerequisite for succeeding at NYU. A few months in, uninterested in most of the labs, he was reconsidering the whole thing and thinking about dropping out. He then started a rotation in a lab focused on Bayesian modeling of behavior. The PI, being new to NYU, may have been somewhat desperate to stock his lab with grad students - why else would he accept a student who had never studied statistics or programming? The PI assigned Will a rotation project about human confidence reports, assuring him that it would be a short and focused project. The project instead took 4 years, constituting Will's entire dissertation. Halfway through grad school, Will became obsessed with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. After the election, Will's interest in a science career plummeted to a record low. Instead of focusing primarily on his research, he started organizing NYU scientists to think about how to respond to the new American political reality. This effort became ScAAN, the Scientist Action and Advocacy Network. Will's PI was extremely supportive of this new effort - he helped organize the group and remains a key member. After grad school, Will pivoted from science to elections policy, joining a group that works to end gerrymandering (i.e., politicians drawing district lines, in a clear conflict of interest). He then did a one-year fellowship for scientists in the U.S. Senate, writing pointed letters on behalf of a prominent U.S. Senator. The fellowship was an eventful one, marked by the Senator's presidential run, an impeachment trial, some exciting wins, and the start of the pandemic. He now works at a nonprofit focused on individual rights online. His work involves making elections more secure, accessible, and fair, and finding ways to fight election disinformation and solve America's crisis of distrust in democracy. (He sometimes wonders if understanding consciousness would have been a more achievable goal.) Will and his wife live in Washington, DC, where they both grew up. They live with their two cats, whom he trained to use the toilet - perhaps Will's proudest accomplishment in the behavioral sciences.