Home Region
Washington, D.C.
Undergrad Education
Stanford University, BA, 2013
Previous Experience
Lyft, Google
HBS Activities
Joint Degree Leadership Council, Tech Club, Coding, Analytics, & Machine Learning (CAML) Club, Future of Work Club
“My mission is to ensure that technology serves the public interest – that it helps people.”
Why did you choose this path at this point in time?
I worked for several years at Google in marketing and public policy roles, first related to corporate social responsibility initiatives and subsequently to emerging technologies. In my time there, I became convinced that technology could have a tremendous impact on human problems -- but that its impact would depend on how systems are developed and the problems to which they are applied. I came to the joint MBA/MPP program interested in more directly shaping the governance and development of emerging technologies through both the public and private sectors.
Coming to HBS is like...
...drinking from a firehose, to use a tired but effective analogy! It’s an environment with lots of new people, information, and ideas, and can feel overwhelming at first, but also very exciting.
Being part of the HBS community is like...
...joining a historic but dynamic community. I love the combination of tradition and change at HBS. It’s special to consider how many other sections have gone through the RC curriculum, but also exciting to be a part of important modernization and change at the institution, like the increasing focus on diversity in cases and even the necessary transition to online learning.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A writer, either a novelist or a journalist. I loved books and was always interested in government and public policy. I thought journalism might enable me to combine those interests.
What is your favorite childhood memory?
Riding home from school with my sisters in Cairo, listening to LFO.
Who is one person from your life that you admire the most today?
My parents! They have a combined more than 50 years of public service between their two careers. They have always emphasized that making a contribution to the world is the greatest goal, and to approach life with determination. (As my dad always said: “Welch girls never say can’t.”) I admire them enormously, and I hope to make them proud every day.
What’s the best thing about your home town?
I come from a Foreign Service family, and we moved often, so I don’t feel like I have one hometown; home for me is where my parents and sisters are. But there are a few things that make a space feel like home, like the ceramics and rugs that my mom’s collected over the years through travels.