Kathy Pham
Kathy Pham | |
|---|---|
| Born | United States |
| Occupation(s) | Computer scientist, product management executive, educator |
| Known for | Founding member of United States Digital Service; Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the Federal Trade Commission; first Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee; Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School; co-founder of Ethical Tech Group; Mozilla fellow |
Kathy Pham is a Vietnamese American computer scientist and executive in product management with extensive experience in leadership, engineering, and data science roles at organizations such as Google, IBM, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Harris Healthcare. She was among the founding members of the product and engineering teams at the United States Digital Service (USDS), which operates within the Executive Office of the President of the United States at The White House. Pham held the position of Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Product and Engineering at the Federal Trade Commission and served as the first Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee.
Pham is a Fellow and faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she designed and instructs the course Product Management and Society. Her fellowships include appointments at Mozilla, the Rita Allen Foundation, and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center. She co-founded the Ethical Tech Group and participated as a fellow in Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence at the MIT Media Lab. At Mozilla, Pham co-leads the Responsible Computer Science Challenge and co-established the Mozilla Fix the Internet Incubator. Additionally, she launched Product and Society, a platform dedicated to exploring intersections among product management, ethics, and public interest.
Among her distinguished accomplishments, Pham secured first place in the Imagine Cup competition representing the United States with a sentiment analysis engine known as EmotionAI.
Early life and education
Pham’s family background traces to Vietnamese refugees who endured years in camps before relocating to the United States. Her brother, Major David Pham of the United States Marine Corps, was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in Afghanistan.
She completed her secondary education at Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, Georgia, where she excelled academically as salutatorian and participated on the volleyball team. Pham earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also holds a Master of Science in computer science from both Georgia Tech and Supélec, concentrating on cryptography alongside human-computer interaction.
During her university years, Pham led Georgia Tech’s Women in Computing organization as chair, acted as technology director for the Phi Mu fraternity, conducted research within the Bio-Medical Informatics and Bio-Imaging Laboratory, and established the southeastern chapter of United for Sight.
Career
Pham’s professional journey started as a software engineer working on flight simulation programs and healthcare interoperability solutions at Georgia Tech Research Institute and Harris Healthcare. Subsequently, she transitioned to IBM as a consultant and data scientist specializing in healthcare analytics. While at IBM, she spearheaded the Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign and founded an After Hours Gaming League for StarCraft II, where her team advanced to league finals. At Google, she contributed across product management, technical program management, and data science teams supporting Google Health, Google People Operations, and Google Search. She also initiated Google's inaugural Business Intelligence Summit called SELECT*.
Departing Google in 2014, Pham joined the United States Digital Service, where she directed projects spanning Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense initiatives, Precision Medicine Initiative, and Cancer Moonshot efforts—engaging in engineering leadership, product strategy, and personnel operations. Following President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union address, she was invited to speak at the White House State of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (SoSTEM) event.
Since 2017, Pham has held fellowships at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, focusing on technology policy including healthcare innovation, artificial intelligence ethics, and digital governance. In 2018, through collaboration between MIT Media Lab and Berkman Klein Center Assembly, she contributed to discussions on AI ethics emphasizing community participation and helped establish ai-in-the-loop. At Harvard Kennedy School she teaches Product Management and Society while also holding fellowships at both the Shorenstein Center and Belfer Center.
Between 2018 and 2021, Pham served as Fellow and Co-Director for Mozilla’s Responsible Computer Science Challenge where she co-edited the Teaching Responsible Computing Playbook. In 2020, she co-founded Mozilla’s Fix the Internet Incubator which supported fifty teams globally during its inaugural year. Later she took on a role as Senior Advisor at Mozilla.
In 2021, Pham was appointed Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the Federal Trade Commission. By 2023, she became the first Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC), providing counsel to both the President and National AI Initiative Office.
Pham actively participates in advocacy efforts,[1] and gained attention for bringing her infant daughter onto stage during a keynote presentation—sparking widespread use of #LittleKeynoteSpeaker. She collaborates closely with immigrant communities to enhance accessibility to government services. Her advisory roles include positions with the Anita Borg Institute and Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Initiative. To commemorate her late mother’s legacy, she established the Mary Hương Thị Phạm Endowment at Georgia Tech. Additionally, she founded the Cancer Sidekick Foundation along with launching Boston’s Women in Product chapter. She is credited with coining “Cancer Patient Sidekick.”
Honors
- Inducted into Georgia Tech’s Computing Hall of Fame in 2021
- Selected for Georgia Tech’s inaugural 40 under 40 list in 2020
- Delivered the Farewell Lecture on Class Day at Harvard Kennedy School in 2020
- Served as Commencement Speaker at Harvard University Extension School in 2019
- Among the youngest honorees inducted into Georgia Tech’s Greek Hall of Fame in 2017
- Attended the 2015 State of the Union as a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama
- Recognized in Nguoi Viet’s 40 under 40 list
- Achieved first place representing the United States in the Imagine Cup international competition, competing against over 300,000 participants
- Awarded Most Outstanding Junior by Georgia Tech’s College of Computing
- Named a finalist for the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
- Graduated as Salutatorian from Windsor Forest High School
External links
- ↑ including promoting diversity within technology sectors
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Living people
- Year of birth missing (living people)
- American women computer scientists
- American computer scientists
- Artificial intelligence ethicists
- Google employees
- IBM employees
- Berkman Fellows
- Executive Office of the President of the United States
- Georgia Tech alumni
- Harvard Kennedy School faculty
- American people of Vietnamese descent
- Scientists from Georgia (U.S. state)
- 21st-century American women