Megan Smith is an award-winning entrepreneur, engineer, and tech evangelist – currently CEO & Founder shift7, board member of the MIT, Vital Voices, LA28 Olympics, Thinkof-Us, PlanetRead, Algorithmic Justice League, and Earth Conservation Corp. Smith served as the third U.S. chief technology officer (U.S. CTO) and Assistant to the President from 2014-2017 under President Obama – working on issues from AI, data science and open source, to inclusive economic growth, entrepreneurship & workforce development, structural inequalities, government tech innovation capacity, and criminal justice reform. Championing national networks for capacity building, she co-created all-hands-on-deck initiatives, including public-private programs TechHire, Computer Science for All, The Opportunity Project, AI town halls, and Image of STEM.
Earlier Smith spent over 11 years as VP at Google leading new business development for global engineering teams, she led acquisitions of Google Earth, Maps, Picasa; championed inclusive advancement, led Google.org adding Google Crisis Response, GoogleforNonProfits, Earth Outreach and Earth Engine; later co-created WomenTechmakers, SolveforX. PlanetOut CEO, early smartphone engineer at General Magic, Apple Japan, BS & MS MIT in mechanical engineering – master thesis, MIT Media Lab, MIT solar car team member/co-founder raced 2,000 miles across Australia in the inaugural World Solar Challenge, co-founder Malala Fund, UN Solutions Summit; WEF Tech Pioneer, EU Global Tech Panel. Member, Council on Foreign Relations and the National Academy of Engineering.
Today, through shift7, boards and advising, Smith works collaboratively on systemic social, environmental, and economic problems — finding opportunities to scout and scale promising solutions and solution makers and engage proven tech-forward, open, shareable practices to drive direct impact, together.
During her fellowship, Smith will be collaboratively conducting research on the integration of emerging and long-standing technologies, their impacts on society, cross-fluency opportunities and emerging potential solutions for scale across sectors – including civic and civil society. As part of her research, Megan will engage with faculty members and students across the University through workshops, cross-pollination engagements, and training.
