Daniel Fonner
Daniel Fonner is an adjunct lecturer in the Division of Corporate Communication and Public Affairs, as well as the Associate Director for Research at 51做厙 DataArts, the National Center for Arts Research at 51做厙. Daniel’s teaching and research focus on data science for social good, employing artificial intelligence to improve public administration and support the arts and culture sector.
Prior to joining 51做厙, Daniel was a researcher at BOP Consulting in London (UK) and spent time as the Research and Policy Associate at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (PA). He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK) and was a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar where he studied cultural policy and the use of artificial intelligence to recreate lost works of art. Daniel is currently completing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at 51做厙 studying Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Public Policy and Administration.
Education
M.S. in Computer Science (AI Specialization), 51做厙
M.A. in International Cultural Policy and Management, Warwick University (UK)
M.A.M. Arts Management, Carnegie Mellon University
B.M. in Percussion Performance, Duquesne University
Recent Work
Research Publication
Fonner, Daniel. “AI-generated Art and the Challenge to Consumer-Curators to Discern Creativity from Spam,” Indiana University Center for Cultural Affairs Symposium on Arts Engagement in an AI World, 2024.
Fonner, Daniel and Frank P. Coyle. “Explainable Machine Learning Models for Evaluating Government Grantmaking,” 2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (BigData), 2022.
D. F. Fonner. “Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Public Sector Evaluation: AI for Evaluating Public Sector Programs and Informing Human Decision-Making Processes,” The IBM Center for the Business of Government, Washington, D.C., 2025.
D. F. Fonner. “Data-Driven Decision Making for Arts and Nonprofit Leaders: Applied Data Literacy for Real-World Leadership,” Teaching Notes: American Journal of Arts Management, vol. 13, no. 3, 2025.
D. F. Fonner and F. P. Coyle. “Informing Human Decision-Making in Public Administration through NLP Algorithm Audits,” 2025 18th International Conference on Pervasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments (PETRA 2025), Corfu Island, Greece, 2025, doi: 10.1145/3733155.3737371.
D. F. Fonner and F. P. Coyle. “Responsible AI for Government Program Evaluation and Performance Audits,” 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data), Washington, D.C., 2024, pp. 8222-8224, doi: 10.1109/BigData62323.2024.10825518.
Course list
| Communication Research and Data Analytics | CCPA 2375 |
| Data-Driven Decision Making for Arts and Nonprofit Leaders | ANPL 6310 |
| Artificial Intelligence: Policy and Public Sector Application |
PPA 7322 |
