Cara LaPointe

Dr. Cara LaPointe is Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy. She was a Senior Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University where she worked at the intersection of emerging technologies, leadership, policy and ethics.

Her expertise areas include blockchain technology as well as autonomous and unmanned systems. She created the Blockchain Ethical Design Framework as a tool to drive social impact and ethics into the design and implementation of blockchain. Cara serves as an advisor to a number of blockchain initiatives and organizations and is a frequent speaker on blockchain and emerging technologies at a wide range of venues including the United Nations, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Stanford University, New York University, Fordham University, SXSW, and the Singularity University Global Summit.

During two decades as a naval officer, Cara also held roles in government acquisitions, ship design and production, naval force architecture, and power and energy systems. Cara is a patented engineer and the founder of Archytas LLC, an emerging technology and strategy consulting firm. Cara was a White House Fellow and a French-American Foundation Young Leader and she serves as the Program Manager for the French-American Foundation’s Cyber Security Program. She holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of Oxford, and the United States Naval Academy.