Madison Carter

Madison Carter is a Yale University researcher, AI Advisor at a Fortune 100 technology company, and former non-profit CEO whose life reads like one of her own thrillers—marked by high-stakes global adventures, relentless pursuit of truth, and a crash course in the shadowy world of technology and cyber intrigue. Armed with degrees in economics and political science from Bucknell University, an advanced degree in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and immersive studies at the Nelson Mandela School in South Africa, she began her career on Wall Street, navigating the cutthroat corridors of firms like MF Global and S.A.C. Capital. But it was her pivot to impact-driven work at Compassion International—where she served from 2018 to 2023, running three global teams that reached nearly 3 million children worldwide while spearheading data-driven initiatives for sustainable change—that honed her expertise in unraveling complex systems, from public health crises to economic injustices.

Life threw Carter a curveball in the digital wilderness: isolated on a rural acreage with unreliable tech, she endured nonstop whaling attacks, rootkits, and suspicious hacks traced to remote servers, forcing a raw, self-taught mastery in cybersecurity, networking, operating systems, coding, cryptography, and digital forensics. Transforming from economist to impromptu "Radio Shack" engineer, she dove headfirst into AI tools, cyber law, and innovative defenses against bad actors—experiences that not only sharpened her storytelling but fueled her vision for solutions like CATIS, a digital fingerprinting system designed to combat cyber threats. Today, she channels these hard-won skills to empower others facing intimate partner violence, enhancing family safety and driving systemic improvements through her advisory work at WWT and beyond. This wild odyssey infuses her debut novel, The Raven Cipher, with authentic, pulse-pounding realism: a tale of espionage, family legacies, and raven-guided conspiracies that mirrors her own battles against invisible forces.

Beyond the page, Carter channels her resilience into her YouTube channel, Asteroids & Ravens, where she exposes tech's dark underbelly, and her LinkedIn articles that challenge systemic failures with unyielding honesty. A truth-seeker at heart, she crafts narratives that blend high-octane action with profound insights, inviting readers to question the world around them—and emerge stronger. Connect with her on LinkedIn as Jessica McDonald to dive deeper into her writings