We are delighted to announce that Cori Zarek is joining the Apolitical leadership team, as we grow our community, partnerships and impact across North America.
With more than two decades of experience working within and alongside government institutions, Cori brings a remarkable depth of knowledge and a proven track record of using technology to help governments address their most pressing policy challenges.
Cori’s career of public service includes serving as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Digital Service at the White House and Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer. She’s also made an important contribution outside of government as Executive Director at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center, and founding several impact organisations focused on technology and policy delivery, as well as chairing Code for America’s annual summit.
In her new role as Vice President: North America at Apolitical, she’ll build on her career’s work, creating more connected and capable public services through technology and networks.
Cori shared her thoughts on joining the Apolitical team:
“In two decades of working in and around government, it's clear that we need to better invest in learning, development, and collaboration opportunities for public sector workers. I'm excited to join Apolitical with its focus on the people who power our governments, so we can unlock new ways for us to learn from one another in North America as we address critical challenges and opportunities of our time on topics including AI, climate, and the economy.”
Full biography
Cori Zarek joins Apolitical with two decades of working in public service and public interest roles based in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Cori served as the deputy administrator of the U.S. Digital Service, the 200+ person technology team based at the White House that partners with federal agencies to improve how the U.S. government delivers services. Before that, she was at Georgetown University where she was the executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and taught courses on leveraging data and digital technologies to implement policy. In past government roles, Cori worked for the U.S. National Archives and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where she was Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer under President Barack Obama. Outside of government, Cori practiced First Amendment and freedom of information law with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and worked with the Mozilla Foundation and Code for America.
In 2020, Cori co-founded U.S. Digital Response which matches pro-bono technologists to work with government and organizations responding to urgent challenges and in 2021, she co-founded Technologists for the Public Good, the first U.S.-focused professional association for public interest technologists. In 2022, she co-founded the Judicial Innovation Fellowship which partners technologists with state court administrations to improve access to justice with data and design, based at Georgetown University where she remains on the faculty. She was recognised in the 2024 Federal 100 list of top leaders in U.S. information technology.
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