An early graduate of Columbia’s MS in Data Science program, Domingues built a career in industry before bringing her DSI-honed expertise into public-interest AI policy. Today, she applies her technical and communication skills to a broad range of AI strategy and education efforts.

When Carmem Domingues (MSDS ’18) joined the Data Science Institute’s inaugural MSDS cohort in 2014, she was already leveraging her Harvard degree in Economics and Applied Mathematics in her role as a professional data scientist. At the same time, Domingues realized that pursuing a Columbia MSDS part-time would provide her with the key skills that she would need to engage with data science and, eventually, AI, across a broad range of industries.


“I was already programming machine learning algorithms on the job, but I wanted to get the theoretical grounding and academic rigor of the field; that is why I sought out DSI. The MS from DSI expanded both my math and computer science skills, enabling me to fully understand and apply the machine learning algorithms that are at the cutting-edge of the field today,” says Domingues. 

Today, Domingues is a Distinguished Fellow at the Future Government Institute, whose ongoing connection with Columbia and DSI has continued to inform and inspire her professional trajectory since she finished her master’s in Data Science at DSI in 2018. In 2022, for example, it was a talk by Dr. Alondra Nelson at DSI’s annual Data Science Day event—now DAX—that led Domingues to explore the possibility of public-sector work. Dr. Nelson, a former Columbia professor and then acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, spoke about a growing need for more technical expertise in government to support responsible AI policy.

“This resonated,” Domingues says. “I was already frustrated by what seemed to be a lack of technical understanding in policy.”

At the time, Domingues was already working to bring a better understanding of technical topics and issues to broader audiences. In addition to her corporate roles, she was leading her own data strategy and machine learning consultancy, and, in 2020, she launched a bilingual YouTube channel designed to help non-technical audiences understand AI and emerging technologies.

“AI was starting to have a big impact,” she explains, “and I wanted to demystify it—to help people understand what AI is and why it matters.”

From Industry to Public Interest

Inspired by Dr. Nelson’s talk, Domingues applied to the Presidential Innovation Fellowship, a highly competitive program that places experienced industry practitioners into federal agencies as senior advisers. 

“It felt like a perfect fit,” she says. “It leveraged my industry experience and allowed me to work on mission-aligned problems that directly serve the public.”

In 2023, Domingues joined the Veterans Experience Office (VEO) at the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she helped design and implement the office’s first data and AI strategy. Doing that successfully meant first answering a range of cross-cutting questions, Domingues says. “What problem are we trying to solve? What data do we need? How do we access it? What governance needs to be in place? What skills do we have, and what do we need to hire for?”

Carmem Domingues seated in the White House

Alongside the strategy work, she and her team began developing the office’s first predictive machine-learning tool, which required building out IT infrastructure that didn’t yet exist. “We were building the tools and the infrastructure at the same time—it was very much building the plane while flying it,” Domingues says.

In her second fellowship year, Domingues joined the Executive Office of the President at the White House, where she served as a Senior AI Technical Advisor, advising on policy development and government-wide readiness. Drawing on her technical and communication skills, she co-created an AI training program to equip over 2 million civil servants and more than 1 million military personnel with a practical understanding of AI’s capabilities, limitations, and risks across government.

“Designing this course was a highlight,” says Domingues. “It was a powerful way to educate people across the government on the realities of AI.”

Shaping a Responsible Future

In her current role at Future Government Institute, Domingues continues her global capacity-building work, designing AI training for public-sector clients alongside work with industry clients. She is also pursuing a new degree in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, examining how the tools people build may affect cognition, decision-making, and social relationships. In a recent panel discussion at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International and Public Affairs, she also contributed insights on the role of AI in foreign policy.

The wide scope of her academic and professional experience has made Domingues a “techno-realist,” she says. “We as a society need to understand what’s going on with AI better so that we can all make better decisions, both in our private lives and in our work lives.”