Gabriella is the Executive Director of OpenUp, a civic tech lab based in Cape Town, and Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. She was formerly the Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre, which focused on whistleblower protection, and was a Senior Research Fellow with Research ICT Africa. Widely published, she holds a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town, and graduated with distinction in Sociology. She clerked with Justice Yacoob of the Constitutional Court, and has also worked with the University of Witwatersrand, as well as with domestic and international non-governmental partners. She has contributed to the drafting of several regional instruments, such as the African Model Law on Access to Information; the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms; and the African Union Draft Data Policy Framework. She was an Internet Governance Fellow; an alumni of the International Visitor Leadership Program (Global Digital Leader); and one of the Mail & Guardian's Young 100 in 2012