A recognized leader in technology strategy and transformation, Dr. Shmona Simpson is the Founder and CEO of Paritii, an innovation strategy firm, specializing in technology solutions which advance economic mobility and opportunity for underserved communities.
Dr. Simpson is a pioneer in helping organizations identify, measure, and mitigate bias in machine learning systems. She has introduced framework for evaluating fairness in AI systems along lines of race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Paritii’s flagship solution, Swyft, brings intelligent automation to education systems, streamlining high-volume administrative workflows such as financial aid, and scaling the availability of data-backed guidance for students navigating college and career. Swyft was a selected Google.org accelerator participant and has a vision of empowering institutions, advisors, and millions of students at broad-access institutions (including HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and HSIs) to successfully navigate higher education. In total, her company has developed and licensed a suite of 25 products, platforms, and services that revitalize technology offerings to meet the needs of all communities, and mobilized and managed over $300M for impact investment.
Prior to founding Paritii, she served as a Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she led cross-functional initiatives to scale technology for social impact. Dr. Simpson is a sought-after advisor and speaker on the business case and scale path for responsible technology. Her work has been featured in influential outlets such as SXSW, ASU-GSV, Business Insider, Yahoo, and the Associated Press.
Dr. Simpson holds a Doctorate in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and Chair of the Black Rhodes Scholars Association.