Nikki Pope is an attorney, educator, and award-winning author. Her career spans decades in advertising, product management, marketing, securities law, legal education, filmmaking, criminal justice advocacy, and tech ethics. She currently leads the Trustworthy AI Initiative at NVIDIA. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Nikki was the Managing Director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. Before HTLI, she was a corporate attorney at Cooley LLP and a trial attorney at the US Department of Justice. Nikki has held leadership roles at large corporations including American Express, Comcast, and J. Walter Thompson, and has worked with a number of tech startups as an advisor and an employee. Nikki has been on the board of nonprofits from insurance to filmmaking to social services.

While at HTLI, Nikki organized one of the first legal symposia on AI in the criminal justice system, bringing together thought leaders from across the country to share their insights into how technology is changing the legal system generally and criminal justice in particular. Her award-winning book, Pruno, Ramen, and a Side of Hope: Stories of Surviving Wrongful Conviction, profiles ten people who were wrongfully convicted and exonerated. The 2015 nonfiction book was a direct result of her work with exonerees from various wrongful conviction programs and led to her co-founding The Pruno Fund, a nonprofit providing emergency grants and public speaking training to exonerees in the US. The Northern California Innocence Project honored Nikki for her tireless work with exonerees. She has received other accolades for her work in law and AI ethics.