Bullet Points - Medium Bio - Long Bio
- Professional:
- PhD candidate at UMSI
- Critical Race and AI Justice
- Fighting for transformative and racial justice for historically oppressed communities
- Advisory Board Member: AI4K12
- Current Affiliations: UM ESC, UM Digital Studies Institute, UM A/PIA Studies
- Previous Affiliations: SMASH (Kapor Center), AI4ALL, CogitAI (SonyAI), and NYU
- Personal:
- Anime (Staff at Fanime since 2020)
- US Boba History
- Super Smash Bros. Melee (Link main)
- Indonesian & Taiwanese American; non-binary; pan/bi/demi; he/she/they
- Ohlone Land (Oakland, CA) + Anishinaabeg Land (Ann Arbor, MI)
- I care about:
- Critical Race and Digital Studies and Race and Digital Justice
- Societal Implications of AI and AI Justice
- Critical Pedagogy and Inclusive CS Education
- Prison Abolition, Transformative Justice, and Housing as a Human Right
- QTPOC and Diasporic Asian Issues
- Civic Tech and Tech Policy
Wells Lucas Santo (she/her) is a queer, non-binary, disabled, Indonesian and Taiwanese American PhD candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information working on critical race and AI justice, or how algorithmic technologies disparately impact marginalized communities across the interlocking axes of race, gender, sexuality, and disability. Her dissertation research focuses on what she calls "digital faciality culture,” or how digital technologies such as facial analysis, generative AI, and VTubing mediate identity formation with respect to the face.
Previously, she worked in non-profit education equity, where she developed inclusive, accessible, and culturally responsive curricula on AI and social justice, serving as the Director of Education at SMASH (Kapor Center), the original Education Manager at AI4ALL, and an Advisory Board Member for the AI4K12 initiative. She is currently working on launching a worker co-op called LUDDENITES centered developing thoughtful and joyful non-genAI applications.
Keywords: critical AI; AI justice; digital media studies; Asian American studies; trans technologies; CS education; social media
Last updated: 3 Dec 2025
I am currently rewriting this bio!