Focused on how science and technology can best serve society, Terah Lyons is Founding Executive Director of the Partnership on AI. 

The Partnership is an international, nonprofit initiative aimed at advancing the benefits and addressing the challenges of artificial intelligence, including industry, civil society, and academic organizations. 

In the Obama Administration, she was Policy Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. She co-directed the White House’s Future of Artificial Intelligence Initiative, which facilitated stakeholders in the public and private domains to frame a domestic policy strategy on machine intelligence. Her portfolio encompassed AI and intelligent systems. She also advised on issues of diversity and inclusion in the technology industry.  

While in Harvard College, she played a key role on committees that established the College’s first honor code and restructured its administrative board. She has remained close to Harvard as a director of the Harvard Alumni Association, as co-chair of its recent graduates committee, and in research roles at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. 

“I care deeply about what Harvard stands for—and how it can be better. The challenges facing our world tomorrow will require cross-disciplinary thinkers to confront multidimensional questions. I hope to leverage my experience serving in government and as a nonprofit executive to contribute to ensuring that the University sustains and strengthens its academic excellence and its commitment to serving society.”