Dan “April” Feng ’17

Major: Economics and Political Science 

Combatting mass incarceration by connecting inmates with educational and social resources

Featured by GovInsider as one of the “100 Women in GovTech 2024,” Dan “April” Feng ’17 is dedicated to reshaping how technology serves justice, equity, and education. An internationally recognized leader in civic innovation, she has spearheaded efforts to ensure that incarcerated individuals and their families are included in the implementation of the historic bipartisan infrastructure law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) on state and national stages, leveraging a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address structural failures in the criminal justice system. 

Feng is the CEO of Ameelio, a tech startup that connects incarcerated individuals with their families, loved ones, and outside resources, where she leads strategy, growth, and advocacy. Ameelio is the nation’s only nonprofit provider of incarcerated persons’ communications and education technology. In 2023, TIME Magazine recognized Ameelio as one of the 100 Most Influential Companies.

Prior to Ameelio, Feng worked extensively for governments in both the U.S. and the U.K. An economist by training, she has worked with Freakonomics author Dr. Steven Levitt at the University of Chicago Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change as a senior analyst. From June 2017 to July 2018, Feng served as the youngest city manager for the Department of Innovation & Technology of the City of South Bend. There, she collaborated with MIT Poverty Action Lab to create a randomized control trial to evaluate the city’s high-school dropout prevention program, as well as working with Results for America to repurpose federal funding toward affordable housing development.

Feng graduated with a bachelor of arts in economics and political science from the University of Notre Dame in 2017 and received her master’s in philosophy and public policy from the London School of Economics in 2019.