Kathy Pham is a Vietnamese American
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...
and
product management
Product management is the business process of planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service. It includes the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to development to go to market. Product managers are responsible for ...
executive. She has held roles in leadership, engineering, product management, and data science at
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
, the
Georgia Tech Research Institute
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. GTRI employs around 3,000 people, and was involved in nearly $1 ...
, Harris Healthcare, and served as a founding product and engineering member of the
United States Digital Service
The United States Digital Service (USDS) was a technology unit housed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President of the United States and established by Appropriations bill (United States) ...
(USDS) in the
Executive Office of the President of the United States
The Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The office consists o ...
at
The White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...
. Pham was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Product and Engineering at the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
,
and the inaugural Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee.
Pham is a Fellow and Faculty member at the
Harvard Kennedy School
The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...
where she created and teaches Product Management and Society. She has held positions as Fellow at
Mozilla
Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...
, Fellow at the Rita Allen Foundation, and Fellow at the Harvard
Berkman Klein Center where she co-founded the Ethical Tech Group and was part of the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fellows in partnership with the MIT Media Lab. At Mozilla, Pham co-leads the Responsible Computer Science Challenge and co-founded the Mozilla Fix the Internet Incubator. Pham founded Product and Society, which focuses on product management, ethics, and the public interest. Pham has been part of a championship StarCraft II team, and placed 1st the
Imagine Cup
Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together student developers worldwide to help resolve some of the world's toughest challenges. It is considered as "Olympics of Technology" by computer s ...
competition, representing the United States with a
sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis (also known as opinion mining or emotion AI) is the use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify, and study affective states and subje ...
(EmotionAI) engine.
Early life and education
Pham’s parents were
Vietnamese boat people
Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...
, who spent several years in refugee camps before immigrating to the United States. Her brother,
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
Major David Pham, was presented the
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...
medal during combat operations in Afghanistan.
Pham attended
Windsor Forest High School
Windsor Forest High School is a public high school in the Windsor Forest section of Savannah, Georgia, United States. Managed by the Savannah-Chatham County School Board of Education, its attendance area includes the southside Savannah neighborhoo ...
in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, where she was a member of the volleyball team and graduated as
salutatorian
Salutatorian is an academic title given in Armenia, the Philippines, Canada, Afghanistan and the United States to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. ...
of her graduating class.
Pham earned a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
in
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
from the
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...
. She also holds a
Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
in computer science from both the Georgia Institute of Technology and
Supélec
École supérieure d'électricité (, ), commonly known as Supélec (), was a French graduate school of engineering. It was one of the most prestigious grande écoles in France in the field of electrical engineering, energy and information scien ...
, specializing in cryptography and human computer interaction. While in university, Pham was the chair of Georgia Tech's Women in Computing, director of technology at
Phi Mu
Phi Mu () is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States.
The fraternity was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia as the Philomathean Society on , and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same ...
fraternity, researcher in the Bio-Medical Informatics and Bio-Imaging Lab, and founded the southeast chapter of
United for Sight.
Career
Pham began her career as a software engineer building flights simulation and healthcare interoperability software at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and Harris Healthcare. She then was a consultant and data scientist at IBM who focused on healthcare analytics. There, she also led IBM’s Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign and founded the After Hours Gaming League for
StarCraft II
''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...
with a team that made it to the league gaming finals. At Google, she held roles in product management, technical program management, and data science on
Google Health
Google Health encompasses the health and wellbeing initiatives of Google, including Fitbit and a range of other features and integrations. Google Health started in 2008 as an attempt to create a repository of personal health information in ord ...
, Google People Operations, and
Google Search
Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...
. She founded Google’s first Business Intelligence Summit, called SELECT*.
Pham left Google in 2014 to join and build the
United States Digital Service
The United States Digital Service (USDS) was a technology unit housed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President of the United States and established by Appropriations bill (United States) ...
, where she led and contributed to public services across the Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Precision Medicine Initiative, and Cancer Moonshot, spanning engineering, product management, and people operations. Pham was a guest speaker to the White House State of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (SoSTEM), following the
State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a Joint session of the United States Congress, joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning ...
address in 2015.

Since 2017, Pham has been selected as a Fellow, and now Affiliate, at Harvard University’s
Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where her research spans technology, policy, healthcare, artificial intelligence, and the social responsibility and ethics of the tech industry. As a member of th
2018 MIT Media Lab and Berkman Klein Center Assembly Pham's work addressed the ethics and governance of
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
with a focus on community involvement and community voices, and she co-founde
ai-in-the-loop.Pham teaches Product Management and Society at the Harvard Kennedy School, where she has also feld Fellowships at the
Shorenstein Center
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center that explores the intersection and impact of media, politics and public policy in theory and practice.
Among other activities, the center or ...
and
Belfer Center.
From 2018 to 2021, at Mozilla, Pham was a Fellow and Co-Director of the Responsible Computer Science Challenge, where she also co-edited the Teaching Responsible Computing Playbook along with Atri Rudra. In 2020, Pham co-founded the Fix the Internet Incubator at Mozilla, supporting 50 teams and start-ups world-wide in the first year.
She later served as a Senior Advisor at Mozilla.
In 2021, Pham was named Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Trade Commission.
In 2023, Pham was named the inaugural Executive Director of the National AI Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises the President and National AI Initiative Office.
Pham is active with outreach and activism, and has been notable for bringing her infant daughter along for a keynote address prompting the hashtag #LittleKeynoteSpeaker. She works closely with immigrant communities to help navigate government services. Pham has served as an advisory board member of the
Anita Borg Institute
AnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institut ...
and the Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Initiative. To honor her late mother, Pham created the Mary Hương Thị Phạm Endowment at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Pham was the founder and executive director of the Cancer Sidekick Foundation and the founder of the Boston Chapter of Women in Product. She coined the term Cancer Patient Sidekick.
Honors
* Inducted into the Computing Hall of Fame at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2021)
*Inaugural 40 under 40, Georgia Institute of Technology (2020)
*Invited to give Commencement Class Day Farewell Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School (2020)
* Invited to give Commencement Speaker, Harvard University,
Extension School (2019)
*One of the youngest members to be inducted in the
Georgia Tech
The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...
Greek Hall of Fame. (2017)
*First Lady Michelle Obama’s Guest to the 2015
State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a Joint session of the United States Congress, joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning ...
*
Nguoi Viet’s 40 under 40
*First Place, representing the United States in the international
Imagine Cup
Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corp. which brings together student developers worldwide to help resolve some of the world's toughest challenges. It is considered as "Olympics of Technology" by computer s ...
“Olympics for Technology” competition with over 300,000 competitors.
*Georgia Tech
College of Computing’s Most Outstanding Junior
*Finalist for the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship
*
Salutatorian
Salutatorian is an academic title given in Armenia, the Philippines, Canada, Afghanistan and the United States to the second-highest-ranked graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. ...
of Windsor Forest High School graduating class
References
External links
KathyPham.comProfile at USDS.gov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pham, Kathy
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