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Advancing public interest technology in government.

I'm a public servant and technologist working to build greater public oversight over emerging technologies and the data that powers them.

 

Currently I am a Senior IT Manager over Emerging Technology for the City of San Antonio. As Emerging Technology Division Head for the City of San Antonio, my job is to lead a team that leverages emerging technologies to deliver public services while establishing transparency, security, equity and accessibility for our community. Previously, I was Smart City Administrator at the City's Office of Innovation, where I launched the Smarter Together initiative using a community-driven framework to shape the city's investments in emerging technology for delivering public services.

 

Previously, I've worked on emerging technology projects in government and academic settings both domestically and internationally for groups like City Form Labs, the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, and UN Habitat's People Centred Smart Cities Program. Locally, I was Data Director for the digitally native non-profit newsroom, the San Antonio Report.

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Currently, I am Board member and Procurement Committee chair for the GovAI Coalition, a coalition of over 800 public agencies working towards Responsible AI. I also serve as Vice Chair for United for Smart & Sustainable Communities (U4SSC), a joint initiative of the UN Habitat and ITU. 

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I received a B.S. Neuroscience and B.A. Plan II Arts at the University of Texas at Austin,and a Masters in City Design & Development from MIT DUSP.

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Recent articles:

"Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers - Emily Royall” - GovTech

"The Power of the Collective Purse: Open Source AI Governance and the GovAI Coalition” - Tech Policy Press

“Collaboration can Enable an Age of AI Innovation” - GovTech & Data Smart City

“The Next Evolution of the Smart City is Here” - GovTech

"Smart city 'sandbox' lets San Antonio residents play with technology" - Smart Cities Dive

"San Antonio succeeds by putting people at the center of smart cities." - Digi.City

"San Antonio presents 'community driven' smart cities roadmap." - CitiesToday

"Building a People-Centered Smart City: San Antonio alignts tech with resident and staff input." - The Atlas

​"Move smart and build things: defining digital rights for a changing world," Smart Cities News

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Find me in the usual places:
LinkedIn | @emily_royall

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Download my CV.

Stuff I work on

  • Leads an Emerging Technology Division including Research & Rapid Prototyping verticals, delivering 17 projects resulting in 2M+ in cost savings annually to a municipal government (2025).

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  • Chair Procurement Committee of the GovAI Coalition delivering the first AI Contract Hub and organizing the first cooperative purchasing initiative for the Coalition (2025).

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  • Co-chair Policy Working Group of the GovAI Coalition delivering streamlined AI policy, guiding principles, and governance through consensus building across 750+ US public agencies. (2024)

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  • Supervised a team of 4, execution of 30 smart city projects, and managed a 7.9M USD budgeted municipal Smart Cities Program. (2021-23)

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  • Led team to develop and launch City of San Antonio Smart Cities Program and Smarter Together initiative. (2023)

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  • Primary Author on six Playbooks for UN Habitat's People-Centered Smart City Program. (2022)

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  • Led a two-day training on people-centered smart cities for 25 city leaders representing ten African local governments in partnership with ASToN. (2022)

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  • Led City of San Antonio team on “Smart Streetlight” IoT pilot with local utility, impacting 119K nodes. (2021)

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  • Developed and executed the City of San Antonio’s first Data Governance Policy “AD 7.12”, including “Principles of Data-Informed Government.

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  • Negotiated 8 utility & public sector orgs to execute Data Sharing Protocol for SmartSA Interlocal Datasharing Agreement resulting in increased public sector data sharing. (2021)

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  • Co-developed San Antonio's Digital Divide Assessment and Digital Inclusion Initiatives (2020)

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  • Led interdepartmental team to develop and launch City of San Antonio CoVID-19 Open Data Platform. (2020)

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  • Created and managed the “SmartSA Sandbox” smart cities community engagement program, partnering with 25 agencies to provide over 2,000 youth and families access to free STEM education activities, and to opportunities to provide input to municipal smart city policy.

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  • Led Civic Technology Program “CivTechSA” Year 2 with 50 challenges, 15+ community events, and two Municipal Residency Programs for local technology start-ups. (2019)

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  • Authored 75+ data analytics articles for local news outlet, the San Antonio Report. (2018)

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  • Completed Master’s thesis at MIT using Markov Modeling to predict gentrification in four Boroughs in New York City. (2016)

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Publications

 

 

 

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  • Royall, Emily. “Planning for Digitally Mediated Public Space: Policy Implications for Internet of Things Frameworks in Urban Environments” Responsive Cities Symposium, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, 2016.

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Public Speaking & Podcasts

Press

Get in touch

 © 2024 by Emily Royall.

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