New Leadership Appointments Strengthen Partnership on AI’s Programs, Research, and Policy Capabilities

We are excited to announce three new leadership appointments at Partnership on AI, designed to strengthen our work with Partners to increase the impact of our programmatic and research outputs and leverage our resources and expertise towards advancing AI policy that centers people and society. Dr. Christine Custis has been promoted to Director of Programs and Research, Stephanie Ifayemi has joined as Head of Policy, and Dr. Jason Millar has joined, part-time, as Distinguished Research Director.

“I am delighted to welcome Christine, Stephanie and Jason in these new roles and look forward to working with them to advance our strategic plan and make a meaningful impact in support of our mission and vision,” said Rebecca Finlay, CEO at Partnership on AI.

Dr. Christine Custis, has been promoted to Director of Programs and Research and continues her role as PAI’s Head of Fairness, Transparency, Accountability, and Safety. In this new role, Christine leads, manages and facilitates programmatic planning, operations and priority-setting of PAI’s Program and Research team. She oversees the development of resources, tools and recommendations, along with delivering measurable results that align with our theory of change. This also includes identifying international opportunities for collaboration, particularly among communities most affected by AI, and moving our insights into action by promoting adoption of best practices with Partners. 

Working closely with Dr. Custis, Dr. Jason Millar holds the part-time position of Distinguished Research Director at Partnership on AI and is responsible for PAI’s overall research directions, fostering PAI’s applied research excellence, equity and impact in support of our programmatic priorities. Jason is based at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in the Ethical Engineering of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and is Director of the Canadian Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Ethical Design Lab (CRAiEDL.ca). He has a dual background in engineering and applied ethics, having spent the last 15+ years researching emerging socioethical issues in robotics and AI. Jason’s academic research focuses broadly on developing practical tools and frameworks to empower policymakers and engineers/technologists to engage in interdisciplinary thinking, and to incorporate the resulting socioethical considerations into their work. His work includes connecting these insights to practical applications within industry settings.

Stephanie Ifayemi is Partnership on AI’s new Head of Policy. In this role, she is responsible for designing and executing PAI’s policy strategy. She develops and communicates PAI’s policy, insights, and positions on emerging issues with the AI public policy community, including government representatives and agencies, policymakers, and international organizations. In addition, she collaborates with PAI staff and Partners to identify policy trends and will help shape PAI and Partner work based on these developments. This includes leading the development of policy briefings and bringing together our partners and other key stakeholders through convenings. Stephanie joins PAI from the UK’s Department for Digital, where she led the government’s work on AI standards including designing and launching the UK’s AI Standards Hub. She is a member of the OECD Network of Experts on AI , a representative in bodies such as ISO/IEC, CEN/CENELEC, a Schmidt Futures European International Strategy Fellow and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Defining and Building the Metaverse initiative. 

All three will engage collaboratively and consultatively with our global community of Partners, PAI’s Board of Directors, and other experts in the field to address some of the most important and difficult questions concerning the future of AI. With these new leaders in place, Partnership on AI continues to build internal capacity to support our 100 Partners in creating a future where AI empowers humanity to build a more just, equitable, and prosperous world.