Rachel M. Gillum, Ph. D.

About Rachel M. Gillum, Ph.D.

Dr. Rachel Gillum is currently Vice President of Ethical & Humane Use of Technology at Salesforce where she and her team work to ensure Salesforce technologies, including AI, uphold basic human rights and are not used for harm. Reporting directly to the Chief Ethical & Humane Use Officer, Rachel established the Salesforce’s Ethical Use policy practice, defining and executing on the strategic vision while building out her global team. During her tenure, Rachel has established the company’s key policy guardrails and has scaled policy operations across Salesforce’s suite of acquisitions and product offerings globally. Her team’s work includes the development of the company’s policies and guardrails of Salesforce’s suite of generative AI tools, EinsteinGPT

Rachel manages Salesforce's Ethical Use Advisory Council— a group that includes international experts from organizations such as the United Nations, Freedom House, academic institutions and more — which helps guide the responsible development of Salesforce’s products and use policies.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce appointed Rachel as a Commissioner on its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Commission on Competition, Inclusion and Innovation. The Commission, co-chaired by former Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) and Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ), convenes thought leaders with experience in government, industry, and civil society to develop durable, bipartisan AI policy solutions to ensure the United States continues to lead in innovation while fostering fairness in deploying this revolutionary technology. Read the report here.

Rachel is an affiliated scholar at Stanford University and the author of several academic works including her book, Muslims in a Post-9/11 America: A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs and Their Implications for U.S. National Security Policy, which explores how government counterterrorism and surveillance policies can alienate the country’s most integrated Muslims and become counterproductive to national security.  She is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Member of the Trust and Safety Advisory Group at the Institute for Security and Technology. She received her doctorate and master’s degrees from Stanford University and her bachelors at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Having worked alongside former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the strategic consulting firm RiceHadleyGatesManuel LLC, Rachel has experience assisting CEOs and senior executives from Fortune 50 companies to early stage startups in meeting key strategic challenges. Rachel led the firm's portfolio of technology and venture capital companies as Senior Director of the Silicon Valley Office. Her deep global experience stems from her time working as an intelligence analyst within the U.S. government as well as her experience teaching and leading major research projects in International Relations at Stanford University.

Rachel is passionate about ensuring that emerging technologies, including AI, are developed inclusively and benefit all communities. Rachel is a mentor and Responsible AI startup advisor for the Techstars Accelerator in the San Francisco Bay Area, a program designed to build genuine connections between diverse founders and local mentors and provide equitable access for entrepreneurs of all backgrounds. She serves on the Technical Advisory Board for CareMessage, an organization that leverages technology to improve the health equity of people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Rachel is passionate about paving the way for the next generation of diverse leaders. She is the co-founder and former co-director of Truman National Security Project’s diversity initiative, aimed at supporting and advancing underrepresented minorities in the international security profession. She was formerly an Advisory Committee Member for the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, a program at Duke University aimed to increase diversity within the Political Science discipline by providing a pipeline to graduate school and the professorate for under-represented minority students.