UC Merced Magazine | Commemorative Chronicle

BROOKLYNN PHAM ’09 SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER | EDUCATION Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence

She is a teacher. It’s what Brooklynn Pham ’09 has always done. She has taught schoolchildren. She has instructed other educators. Today, her pupils have widely di erent backgrounds but the same need: to get their heads around arti cial intelligence and develop ideas for how AI can work for them. A year ago, Pham was hired at the institute known as Stanford HAI. Pham creates education programs that help people understand human-centered AI. Her clients are largely executives looking to employ AI in their companies, but people from nonpro t agencies or philanthropic concerns bring similar questions. Stanford HAI’s mission statement reads, in part: “AI should be guided by its human impact, inspired by human intelligence and designed to augment, not replace, people.” Pham’s favorite project is AI4ALL, an online summer camp for children who will be 10th graders the following fall. e students get a look at the transformative potential of arti cial intelligence while studying subjects such as robotics and medical AI. “It’s my highlight of the past year,” Pham said. “Just an amazing experience.” Before joining Stanford HAI, Pham worked for 13 years with Teach for America, a nonpro t that trains and places teachers at under-resourced public schools. Pham grew up in Fresno, where grandparents Les and Pauline Kimber founded the California Advocate , a newspaper that gives voice to Black and minority issues.

Growing up around the newspaper had a powerful in uence on Pham. “ at’s why I am passionate about justice and making sure people have an opportunity to do whatever they want to do.”

at’s why I am passionate about justice and making sure people have an opportunity to do whatever they want to do.

...ALWAYS A Bobcat It will always be a stellar moment in UC Merced history: First Lady Michelle Obama addressing the university’s rst four-year graduating class in 2009. e honor of singing the national anthem went to one of the day’s graduates: Brooklynn Pham. “I don’t I think I’ve ever been more nervous, but also never more passionate,” she said. “I wanted to get every note right. And that’s a hard song to sing.”

UCMERCED MAGAZINE 66