Lea was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2020. She is Director for AI and Country Engagement at the Digital Public Goods Alliance, a UN-initiated organisation supporting the adoption of open-source software, open AI models and open data in developing and emerging countries. She previously co-led a GIZ project helping partner countries build open training datasets, develop open AI models and create ethical AI guidelines. She teaches a practical course on digital development cooperation at the Hertie School in Berlin. Lea also serves on the advisory board of the German Federal Environment Ministry’s Initiative on AI technologies for Civil Climate Action and is co-chair of a working group within the UN DPI Safeguards Initiative.