Kent Wada

Background

About Kent Wada

Kent Wada is chief privacy officer and director, policy and privacy for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. Designated as the campus’s first chief privacy officer in 2012, Kent addresses foundational privacy and data issues that have broad impact on the campus community, the academy, and the University mission. His office collaborates closely with other campus offices, including those with compliance authority for the protection of personal information and counterparts in the Health Sciences, to have UCLA be a good steward of data. In his role as director, policy and privacy in the Office of Advanced Research Computing, Kent works broadly with the campus and its data and IT governance functions to help shape the institutional agenda for technology policy issues of strategic concern. Kent has served on numerous University and national committees and task forces. He is a frequent speaker on current policy and privacy topics, particularly at the intersection of balancing opportunity and risk in a world awash in data. Kent is passionate about enabling individuals to participate fully as digital citizens, especially in helping to apply emergent technologies to people's lives in a manner respectful of civil liberties in the digital realm. His greatest hope is that his work sparks a passion in others, leading to ideas and action that in turn ignite him.