Kathy Pham

Kathy Pham is a computer scientist, product leader, and entrepreneur whose career spans more than two decades at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and public policy. She has built large-scale systems in industry and healthcare at Google, IBM, and Harris Healthcare, developing expertise in engineering, product management, and data science. Pham completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in computer science at Georgia Institute of Technology and Supelec in Metz, France. Her work focuses on building technology that is both operationally effective and ethically grounded, with a particular emphasis on responsible artificial intelligence development.

Pham's public sector career includes serving as a founding engineering and product member of the U.S. Digital Service at the White House, where she contributed to digital services in government across multiple presidential administrations. She led efforts at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and the Precision Medicine Initiative, working to improve services and care nationwide. Pham was appointed the inaugural executive director of the National AI Advisory Committee and served as deputy chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, where her team established the first Office of Technology. She was also recognized as a guest at the State of the Union for her work in healthcare, veterans affairs, and public service.

At Harvard, Pham has held faculty, fellowship, and affiliate positions. At the Kennedy School, she created and teaches "Product Management and Society," and at the Business School, she teaches "Product Management: Building New Technologies." She is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center, where she co-founded the Ethical Tech Working Group, focusing on ethics in technology, engineering culture, and computer science curricula. Pham is also a fellow at the Shorenstein Center, former senior fellow at the Belfer Center, and a faculty affiliate at the Center for Research on Computation and Society. As a fellow of the MIT Media Lab and Harvard Assembly, she co-founded ai-in-the-loop, which focuses on community inclusion in the development of artificial intelligence.

In the private sector, Pham has served as vice president of AI and open technology at Workday, leading enterprise AI initiatives centered on operational deployment and organizational adoption. She co-created the Workday AI Masterclass and co-hosted the "Future of Work" podcast. Pham has also been appointed head of AI at ReviveHealth, focusing on operationally integrated healthcare AI systems. She leads the Agents of Purpose lab, which studies human agency and intelligent systems. Pham has served on advisory boards for Blue Tulip Ventures, the Anita Borg Institute, the Georgia Tech College of Computing, Civic Signals, Startups and Society, and FWD50.

Pham's contributions to artificial intelligence, technology ethics, and public sector innovation have earned her recognition, including the ABIE Technical Leadership Award from Anitab.org for leadership in product and innovation, induction into the Computing Hall of Fame at Georgia Tech, and inclusion among Lighthouse3's 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Wired, Politico, TechCrunch, NPR, and VentureBeat. Pham is a frequent public speaker, known for her combination of technical depth, policy experience, and a human-centered approach to technology.