Dr. Michael Loadenthal
Research Professor, Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy, The University of Cincinnati; Executive Director, The Prosecution Project
2024, 2025
Michael Loadenthal, Ph.D. serves as a Research Professor with the Center for Cyber Strategy and Policy, within the School of Public and International Affairs, at the University of Cincinnati. In this role, he manages several grant-funded research initiatives, including the Ohio Persistent Cyber Improvement (O-PCI) Research Division. Michael concurrently serves as the founder and Executive Director of the Prosecution Project (tPP)—a long-term data analysis program that tracks and analyses political violence through the US court system. At tPP, Michael has recruited, trained, and managed nearly 200 team members throughout the project’s 7+ years.
Michael serves a variety of supporting roles focused around investigating political violence, training teams in open-source intelligence methods, and advising on issues of threat modeling, risk assessment, and operational security. Currently, he is supporting ongoing work by the Bridging Divides Initiative (Princeton University), the Accelerationism Research Consortium (Middlebury Institute), the Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative (Georgia State University), the Movement Engaged Research Hub (George Mason University), the Peace and Justice Studies Association (Georgetown University), the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, and the Global Network on Extremism and Technology.
Throughout the past 20 years, Dr. Loadenthal has worked domestically and in conflict and disaster zones on four continents as a researcher, social movement organizer, and consultant focused on investigating and mitigating political violence, and improving the safety and security of frontline practitioners. He routinely advises social movement organizations, technology companies, NGOs, public officials, and high-risk activists on matters of security, safety, strategy, and tactics. His work has been featured in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, NPR, and USA Today. He catalogs his work at https://michaelloadenthal.academia.edu.
The inaugural Eradicate Hate Summit was a truly impressive gathering of leaders dedicated to finding lasting and effective solutions to violent extremism. I was particularly moved by the prominence given to survivors and family members of victims of hate and violence throughout the event. Their stories and those of so many others must be at the center of what we do and why we do it.
