Spring 2023 Computer Science 458

Joanne Lipman is a pioneering journalist and the author of the No. 1 bestseller THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID: What Men and Women Need to Know About Working Together and NEXT! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of USA Today, USA Today Network, Conde Nast Portfolio, and The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal, leading those organizations to six Pulitzer Prizes. She is also an on-air CNBC contributor and Yale University journalism lecturer.

Previously, Lipman was Chief Content Officer of Gannett, where she was Editor-in-Chief of its USA Today and the USA Today Network, encompassing the flagship publication plus 109 metro newspapers including the Detroit Free Press, the Des Moines Register, and the Arizona Republic. In that role, she oversaw more than 3,000 journalists and led the organization to three Pulitzer prizes.

Lipman began her career as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, ultimately rising to deputy managing editor – the first woman to attain that post – and supervising coverage that won three Pulitzer Prizes. While there she created Weekend Journal and Personal Journal, and oversaw creation of the Saturday edition. She subsequently was founding editor-in-chief of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, which won Loeb and National Magazine Awards.

Lipman’s work has been published in numerous outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time, Fortune, Newsweek and the Harvard Business Review. She has appeared as a television commentator on ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, among others. She is a frequent public speaker, with engagements including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, the Aspen Ideas Festival, TEDx, the International Lean In conference, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Milken Institute Global conference, and has worked with numerous companies on issues of gender equity, diversity and inclusion. She also is co-author, with Melanie Kupchynsky, of the acclaimed music memoir “Strings Attached.”

A winner of the Matrix Award for women in communications, Lipman was the inaugural Distinguished Journalism Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She has served or is currently serving on boards including Yale University Council; the World Editors Forum; the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy; the Yale Daily News; Spirited Media; the Yale Alumni Magazine (chair); the Knights chamber orchestra, and the advisory boards of Data.world, Breastcancer.org, The Wire China, and the Yale School of Music. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She and her husband live in New York City and are the parents of two adult children.

Rebecca Distler is Strategist for AI, Data, and Digital Health at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a philanthropic institution dedicated to advancing AI and data science for public good and social impact. Rebecca leads the foundation's global health portfolio, working with partners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to improve health through digital technology.

Rebecca has spent the last decade building strategic partnerships and programs with technology companies, foundations, non-profits, and governments to advance innovation in global health. Rebecca previously served as Director of Global Health Initiatives at Element, an AI digital identity company co-founded by Yann LeCun, where she worked with partners to develop digital identity platforms for use in health programs and where she was selected as an AI XPRIZE Semi-Finalist. Throughout her career, Rebecca has worked and partnered with organizations such as Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Health Organization.

Rebecca holds a BA in Political Science from Yale University and a Masters in Health Policy and Global Health from the Yale School of Public Health. She is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.