Ami Fields-Meyer is a writer, policy advisor, and political strategist. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. From 2021 to 2024, Ami served in the White House, including as Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris and as a member of the President’s science and technology policy team.
Recognized by Axios as an “advisor to watch,” Ami has served as an advisor to political candidates, leaders of top civil rights groups and major philanthropic foundations, and high-profile public officials, from the mayor of Los Angeles to the vice president of the United States.
He has written about police brutality against disabled Americans for The Atlantic, AI’s march toward illiberalism for Foreign Policy, what America can learn from South Africa’s race reckoning for Talking Points Memo, Jimmy Carter for Haaretz, how technology is used to punish the poor for The American Prospect, and more.
A trusted voice on issues of democracy, civil and human rights, tech policy, and political power, Ami regularly provides analysis in the media and speaks across the country on these and other issues. +
White House Tenure
From 2021 to 2024, Ami served in the Biden-Harris White House, including as Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, stewarding the administration’s efforts on artificial intelligence, responsible innovation, civil rights and consumer protection, national security, and racially and religiously motivated violence.
At the White House, Ami played a critical role in shaping American science and technology policy — including the U.S. approach to artificial intelligence — and leading key efforts to protect Americans’ civil rights and civil liberties. He led the development of measures in President Biden’s historic AI executive order to protect vulnerable people from tech harms, and secured over $200 million in commitments from 10 major philanthropies to advance public-interest technology. In addition to helping develop the first-ever White House policy on the use of AI by the U.S. government, Ami directed preparations for Vice President Harris’s historic visit to the United Kingdom, helping coordinate the U.S. position on the first international AI agreement.
He previously served as chief of staff and senior adviser to Dr. Alondra Nelson in President Biden’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he led the development of the AI Bill of Rights, the landmark U.S. guidance on protecting Americans’ rights in the AI age. In this role he also oversaw the design of America’s first national strategy to eliminate systemic barriers to STEM careers and coordinated the launch of a parallel $1.2 billion public-private partnership, as well as a change in U.S. policy to make all federally funded research immediately available to the public at no cost.
Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School
Following his White House tenure, Ami was appointed senior fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard’s hub for research and teaching on democracy. A member of Professor Danielle Allen’s Lab for Democracy Renovation, he collaborates with global dissidents, anti-authoritarian activists, and leaders in backsliding democracies on initiatives to shore up the international fight against illiberalism and authoritarianism. He has also proposed key research questions for developing a new U.S. tech policy agenda that puts people first.
State and Local Leadership
Before his appointment to the Biden-Harris Administration, Ami served as speechwriter to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti during a period of historic crisis, collaborating with the city’s top officials to convey critical information and to help the region’s 18 million residents make critical day-to-day decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an aide to the mayor, he also spearheaded initiatives to combat rising hate crimes and protect vulnerable communities, leading efforts that secured triple the federal security funding for at-risk nonprofits. He managed a year-long community-organizing campaign that led to the opening of a shelter with 100 new beds for unhoused adults and 54 beds for transition-age youth in L.A.'s Westside neighborhoods.
Ami managed a successful State Assembly campaign and led communications for a member of the California state legislature before joining the Mayor’s office. He is a graduate of Emory University and was a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs.