Emily’s career bridges industry, startups, and academia, with a focus on how people and technology can work better together. As CEO and co-founder of PairUp, an AI-powered platform transforming scattered company knowledge into actionable intelligence, she served leading enterprises like Hearst, RapidSOS, and Motorola. As an R&D researcher at Walt Disney Imagineering, she designed next-generation interactive experiences for the theme parks. At Meta, she was a researcher shaping how people connect online. At EF Education First, she led the Emerging Tech and Innovation team, designing learning technologies that reached millions of students worldwide.Emily has co-founded mission-driven organizations including Brave Initiatives, which equips women with coding and confidence to create for social impact, and Youth Lead the Change, a global civic leadership program developed in partnership with Harvard University.Emily holds a Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Social Anthropology and Psychology from Harvard. Her academic work explores the intersection of AI, social behavior, and collaboration.

Recorded on March 9, 2026.

Links for this episode:

* LinkedIn

* Facebook

* Thoughtlucks

* Google Scholar‬

* Northwestern Magazine: “The most important thing you can do as a leader is to lift up others.”

* Brave Behind Bars (college-accredited introductory computer science and career-readiness program for incarcerated people)

* March 2026 SIKM Leaders Community Call: My Journey Building a KM Startup

* Other Podcast Appearances

* Other Video Appearances

Video Version

Recorded on February 6, 2026.

Links for this episode:

* Facebook

* 1970 Tenakin Yearbook

Video Version

Ann lives in Columbus, Ohio, where stays active by attending classes, playing music, and helping with her two grandchildren. Her department at the Cleveland Public Library won the 2007 Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections. She co-wrote a book on music, edited a book on flowers, and published articles on archiving.

Ann attended three universities and three high schools:

* Kent State University – MLS, Library Science, 1974 – 1975

* Princeton University – MFA, Music Theory, 1970 – 1973

* University of Chicago – BA, Music, 1966 – 1970

* Tenafly High School, Tenafly, New Jersey – 1964 – 1966

* Clayton High School, Clayton, Missouri – 1963 – 1964

* Central High School, Omaha, Nebraska – 1962 – 1963

Recorded on February 3, 2026.

Links for this episode:

* LinkedIn

* Facebook

* 2007 Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Preservation and Care of Collections

* Beyond Brittle: Preserving Theatre History at the Cleveland Public Library

* Growing Perennials in Northern Ohio

* Information on Music: A Handbook of Reference Sources in European Languages, Volume 2: The Americas

* Information on Music: A Handbook of Reference Sources in European Languages, Volume 3: Europe

Video Version