Lisa Maina is an AI Coordinator at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Global AI Office, supporting cross-portfolio coordination and governance of AI initiatives across regions. UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, works across 190 countries and territories to protect the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and those hardest to reach. 

Her work translates child‑rights-centred policy into operational guardrails, aligning standards, strengthening data‑governance foundations, and advancing risk‑and‑impact assessments that make AI use safe, auditable, and fair. Previously at UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Nairobi, Lisa worked with programme teams in 21 countries to move from principle to practice: assessing systems for bias and unintended harms, embedding transparency, and building capacity for responsible adoption. She is also advancing an interactive decision‑support tool that converts complex guidance into clear steps for preventive nutrition planning in emergencies, connecting real-time data, policy, and frontline action.

She brings field-grounded insight to AI regulation: focusing on practical mechanisms that uphold rights, build trust, and deliver measurable benefits to children, youth and the communities that serve them.