Kathy Pham

Kathy Pham
Pham at the United States Digital Service at the White House, 2015
Alma mater	Georgia Institute of Technology, Supélec, MIT Media Lab, Harvard University
Employer	United States Digital Service, Google, IBM, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Board member of	Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, Make the Breast Pump Not Suck

Kathy Pham is a Vietnamese American computer scientist and product leader. She served as a founding product and engineering member of the United States Digital Service (USDS) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States at The White House, and has held roles in leadership, engineering, product management, and data science at Google, IBM, the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Harris Healthcare Solutions.^[1][2][3] Pham is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer on product management at the Harvard Kennedy School, a Fellow in Residence at the Mozilla Foundation, and Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center.^[4][5]

Pham was invited as First Lady Michelle Obama’s Guest to the 2015 State of the Union,^[6] recognized as one of Nguoi Viet’s 40 under 40,^[7] and placed 1st representing the United States in the international Imagine Cup “Olympics for Technology” competition with over 300,000 competitors.^[8][9][10]

Early life and education

Pham’s parents were Vietnamese boat people, who spent several years in refugee camps before immigrating to the United States. Her brother, United States Marine Corps Captain David Pham, was awarded a Purple Heart.^[11][12]

Pham attended Windsor Forest High School in Savannah, Georgia where she was a member of the volleyball team and graduated as Salutatorian of her graduating class.^[13]

Pham earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She also holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from both the Georgia Institute of Technology and Supelec, specializing in cryptography and human computer interaction.^[14] While in university, Pham was the chair of Georgia Tech's Women in Computing,^[15] director of technology at Phi Mu Fraternity, researcher in the Bio-Medical Informatics and Bio-Imaging Lab,^[16] and founded the southeast chapter of United for Sight.^[17] She was a finalist for the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship^[18] and was named the College of Computing’s Most Outstanding Junior.^[19]

In 2017, Pham was one of the youngest members to ever be inducted in the Georgia Tech Greek Hall of Fame.^[20]

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 Solutions. She then was a consultant and data scientist at IBM. There, she also led IBM’s Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign^[21] and founded the After Hours Gaming League for StarCraft II with a team that made it to the league gaming finals.^[22][23] At Google, she held roles in product management, technical program management, and data science on Google Health, Google People Operations, and Google Search. She founded Google’s first Business Intelligence Summit, called SELECT*.^[24]

Pham left Google in 2014 to join and build the United States Digital Service, 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.^[25] Pham was a guest speaker to the White House State of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (SoSTEM), following the State of the Union address in 2015.^[26]

Pham is a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and the MIT Media Lab, where her research spans technology, policy, healthcare, artificial intelligence, and the social responsibility and ethics of the tech industry.^[27][28] As a member of the MIT Media Lab and Berkman Klein Center Assembly, Pham's work addressed the ethics and governance of Artificial Intelligence with a focus on community involvement and community voices,^[29] and she co-founded ai-in-the-loop.

Pham is active with outreach and activism,^{[30][31][32][33]} and has been notable for bringing her infant daughter along for a keynote address prompting the hashtag #LittleKeynoteSpeaker.^[34] She works closely with immigrant communities to help navigate government services.^[35] Pham serves as an advisory board member of the Anita Borg Institute^[36] and the Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Initiative.^[37][38]

Pham is the founder and executive director of the Cancer Sidekick Foundation and the founder of the Boston Chapter of Women in Product.^[39] She coined the term Cancer Patient Sidekick.^[40]

References