Event – MDI Distinguished Lecture “Career Transitions: Impact and Interventions” by Susan Athey, Ph.D.

On October 22, 2025 from 3:00-4:00pm at Fisher Colloquium, the McCourt School of Public Policy’s Massive Data Institute (MDI) will host Susan Athey, Ph.D., Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab. The lecture will be followed by a reception.

Abstract:

As artificial intelligence disrupts labor markets, it has become increasingly important to understand how workers react to disruption, as well as how to facilitate worker career transitions.  This talk will review recent research that uses machine learning to measure the heterogeneous impact of layoffs on worker outcomes. It will then review the design and evaluation of two digital interventions designed to facilitate transitions.  One of the programs helped participants create digital portfolios that demonstrated their skills for IT jobs.  The second simplified the process for workers to post verifiable credentials from online courses on LinkedIn.  Both of these interventions significantly increased employment as measured in large-scale randomized controlled field experiments.

About Susan Athey, Ph.D.:

Professor Susan Athey is The Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her PhD from Stanford, and she holds an honorary doctorate from Duke University.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and is the recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded by the American Economics Association to the economist under 40 who has made the greatest contributions to thought and knowledge. Her current research focuses on the economics of digitization, marketplace design, and the intersection of causal inference and machine learning. She has worked on several application areas, including timber auctions, internet search, online advertising, the news media, and digital technology for social impact.

As one of the first “tech economists,” she served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years, and has served on the boards of multiple private and public technology firms. She also served as a long-term advisor to the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, helping architect and implement their auction-based pricing system. She was a founding associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, where she currently serves as senior fellow, and she is the founding director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab  at Stanford GSB.

About the MDI Distinguished Lecture Series:

The Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the Massive Data Institute (MDI) brings leading scholars from around the world to Georgetown University to share cutting edge research at the intersection of technology and policy. The lecture is followed by a reception.

About the Massive Data Institute (MDI):

At Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy, the Massive Data Institute (MDI) is an interdisciplinary research institute that connects experts across computer science, data science, public health, public policy, and social science to tackle societal scale issues and impact public policy in ways that improves people’s lives through responsible evidence-based research. For more information on MDI, please visit https://mdi.georgetown.edu/

Accommodations: Please indicate accessibility requests by October 15, 2025 in the RSVP Form.

Transportation: Georgetown University is accessible for faculty, staff, students and visitors through many convenient transportation options, including our free university shuttle, public transportation, bicycling, carsharing and other means. Learn more about transportation options here. See here (Interactive map) or here (PDF) for a Georgetown University campus map.

Questions? Please contact mdiresearch@georgetown.edu.