Her Story
About Elise
Elise Wilkerson entered the tech industry in 2024 after serving as Associate Director of the Center for Policy Research and Evaluation at NYU. In her NYU role, she led fee-for-service operations including contracts and grant writing while designing studies and evaluations to support equitable education programs for children across nonprofit and school settings. As a developmental psychologist with doctoral training in human development, she now specializes in AI enablement within in-house tech, conducting live sessions and upskilling sprints that leverage human development principles to guide business leaders toward human-centered AI adoption. Her work emphasizes cross-functional leadership, strategic communication, and blending HR insights with research expertise to ensure safe, human-first AI integration in organizations. She is actively building thought leadership in this area and envisions establishing a consultancy to advise Fortune 500 companies on these principles.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elise
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
The opportunities are shifting because the nature of work is shifting. Demonstrate critical thinking skills, judgment, and fluency in AI skills. Study up on AI and be really strong and solid on your expertise so you can interpret, review, and orchestrate AI while ensuring the human in the loop keeps it running safely.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The nature of work is shifting, creating opportunities for those with critical thinking, judgment, and AI fluency to position themselves as orchestrators ensuring safe AI with humans in the loop.
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