John P.
Cavanaugh

John P. Cavanaugh is a founder, privacy technologist, and PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati's AI BIO Lab, where he builds privacy-by-design AI systems rooted in explainability and human accountability. After nine years co-founding and leading Plunk Student Community, he spent five years as Executive Director of the Plunk Foundation, serving 30 million children, women, and veterans through consent-first digital safety technology. Today he serves on boards across nonprofit, civic, and technology sectors and advises organizations on responsible AI, privacy strategy, and ethical leadership.

John Cavanaugh moderating a panel on AI and privacy
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Credentials

10 Years — For-Profit Founder & President 5 Years — Nonprofit Founder & Executive Director PhD Candidate — UC AI & Aerospace CIPP/US CIPM CIPT FIP IAPP Chapter Chair Young Privacy Professional Eagle Scout

Scale

15
Years Founded & Led
30M+
People Served
$252M
Peak Valuation

Work With Me

🧭
Business Coaching
For founders and executives navigating growth, ethics, and technology decisions at the same time.
🤝
Advisory Board
15 years building, scaling, and leading organizations gives you pattern recognition no consultant can replicate. I bring that to your table.
💡
Startup Mentoring
Built to $252M, turned down $14M, started again from purpose — and reached 30M people. Hard-won perspective on what growth actually costs.
🔬
Responsible & Explainable AI
Research-grade XAI, certifiable AI, and privacy-by-design architecture for teams building systems that need to be trusted — and proven.
Get in touch →

Advisory & Board

Alloy Development Co.
Top-10 global startup incubator and economic development partner in Cincinnati.
Advisor
RentScore
Rental transparency platform turning lived renter experiences into actionable ratings.
Advisor
MEDIA Africa
Equipping journalists across Nigeria with digital street smarts and privacy protection.
Advisor
Made in Cincinnati — Responsible AI Certification
Regional certification recognizing human-centered AI across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Advisor
Arachnid Systems
AI-powered autonomous inspection robotics for aerospace, defense, energy, and space. Active with NASA KSC, AFRL, and DIU.
Board
SHIELD
Global Online Safety Conference — 11,200+ attendees across inaugural year of programming. Co-founder and voting board member.
Board

Selected Press

Experience

2025–Now
Graduate Researcher
University of Cincinnati — AI BIO Lab
Top-5 fuzzy systems lab in the world. Research in XAI, differential privacy, and certifiable AI under Dr. Kelly Cohen.
2025–Now
AI Systems Engineer
Builds & Builders
Designing the entire AI system from the ground up — XAI, privacy by design, fuzzy logic, graph databases, and vector databases — for a workforce operations platform.
2025–Now
AI Operations
DisruptionNow
Strengthening Midwest businesses through AI operations, anchored by MidwestCon and regional programming.
2025–Now
Chapter Chair
IAPP KnowledgeNet — Cincinnati
Leading the regional chapter of the world's largest privacy professional organization.
2024–Now
Program Manager, Risk & Responsible AI
Cincinnati AI Catalyst (CAIC)
AI risk framework across 16 counties in Greater Cincinnati. $3M in grants submitted. ~10,000 people reached.
2025–Now
Human Trafficking Commission Member
Ohio Attorney General's Office
Awareness & Prevention. Current project anticipated to reach 200,000 Ohioans.
2023–Now
Founder & Executive Director
Plunk Foundation
Consent-first AI safety platform serving 30M+ children, women, and veterans. Open-source digital safety infrastructure — a $20M project.
2013–2022
Co-Founder & President
Plunk Student Community
Started at 19. 10,000 students in month one. $350K seed raised. Evaluated at $252M during Series A. Turned down a $13.8M buyout when asked to sell user data.

Projects & Research

Fuzzy Feature Augmentation for Privacy-Preserving ML 🏅 NAFIPS 2026 Honorable Mention

First-author. Improving model robustness under noise perturbation using fuzzy feature augmentation. North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society, 2026.

Fuzzy Logic for Intelligent Prioritization of Student Peer Review Feedback NAFIPS 2026

First-author. Fuzzy inference systems applied to rank and surface actionable peer feedback at scale.

Full-Stack AI System — Builds & Builders In Production

Ground-up AI architecture combining fuzzy logic, graph databases, and vector databases — built with XAI principles and privacy by design.

Privacy-by-Design Coordination Layer — Plunk Foundation × UC Partnership

Consent-first infrastructure enabling social service agencies to act as one team without re-exposing vulnerable families' data.

Connect

If you're building something that matters — a company, a coalition, a system — and you need someone who has done it before and will tell you the truth, let's talk.