Everett N. Kelsey Jr. is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-raised civic technologist and futurist dedicated to protecting civil liberties in the digital age. Now based in Southern California, after years living in Germany and working across both coasts of the United States, Kelsey brings a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary lens to one of the most pressing challenges of our time: ensuring technology serves democracy, equity, and the public good.

A former filmmaker whose projects were featured in top festivals, Kelsey was compelled to pivot when he recognized that the same forces shaping media narratives were increasingly shaping digital systems, governance, and civil liberties. This realization sparked his reinvention as a civic leader focused on ethical AI, digital rights, and community-driven technology.

Today, Kelsey serves as the Founding Executive Director of the Digital Sovereignty Coalition (DSC), a nonprofit initiative building the foundations of a Digital Civil Rights Movement. Under his leadership, DSC stewards public-interest pilots such as Civic Commons (a cooperative digital headquarters for communities and institutions), Data Commons, and open-source civic tools that strengthen democracy in the algorithmic age.

His work is deeply grounded in his family legacy. Kelsey is the grandson of Dr. George D. Kelsey, the theologian and professor who was a spiritual and intellectual mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This lineage provides a moral foundation for Everett’s work, guiding DSC’s commitment to equity, accountability, and human dignity in technology governance.

Kelsey’s international experiences — as a bilingual (English/German) speaker and student of Russian — give him a rare ability to view technological challenges from multiple cultural perspectives. Whether advancing digital rights literacy in community spaces, convening coalitions of technologists and civic leaders, or shaping nonprofit frameworks for ethical technology, his approach combines moral clarity with practical solutions.

Through DSC, Kelsey is weaving together civil rights tradition, cultural literacy, and civic technology into a new movement. His goal is clear: to ensure that the future of digital infrastructure is pluralist, participatory, and democratic — defined by freedom, not control.