Loni Mahanta

Loni Mahanta is a nonresident fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings, where she focuses on tech policy and emerging tech.

Loni is a regulatory, legal, and policy executive whose leadership helps businesses craft winning strategies when industries face uncertainty. Loni currently serves as chief operating officer and general counsel for the AI Education Project, also known as aiEDU, a nonprofit focused on AI literacy and AI readiness for students, focused on partnering with school districts.

Previously, Loni served in senior leadership roles at OpenSea.io and Zillow Group. Loni also spent six years at Lyft, most recently serving as the vice president of policy development and research where she successfully translated business objectives into actionable legislation at the local, state, and national levels.

Loni currently serves on the Board of Directors of HopSkipDrive (HSD), a ride-share company that helps children get where they need to go,  partnering primarily with school districts to serve student transportation needs. Loni also sits on the board of the Family Violence Appellate Project, a nonprofit dedicated to helping domestic violence survivors and their children by appealing dangerous trial court decisions on their behalf, for free.

Loni began her career in labor, employment, and litigation at Folger Levin LLP, Crowell & Moring LLP, and Folger Levin & Kahn LLP. Loni earned her J.D. from University of California’s Hastings College of the Law and a B.A. in international relations from Stanford University. She is a regular speaker on topics including the web3/crypto, future of work, regulation, diversity, and inclusion.