Amanda Towler co-founded Hyperion Gray LLC, a software R&D company working primarily for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) designing and building experimental prototypes a variety of research programs. It was on one of these programs that she first encountered the dark web and the complex legal and criminal dynamics it has created. She spent several years working with law enforcement to address this problem through the lens of technology, and based on this experience she also developed and delivered training to investigators from the Five Eyes nations. She now teaches Dark Web Criminology at the CSU School of Law, which was offered for the first time in Fall 2023.

In 2020, Towler left Hyperion Gray and is now the Acting Division Manager of the AI, Analytics and Innovation division of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), as well as the Group Supervisor of the Future Technologies Exploration group. She received her B.A. in Government and Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and earned her Master’s of Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School of Public Affairs.