Joy A. Lo is an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and Chief of Staff at HR&A Advisors, an industry leader creating more equitable, resilient, and dynamic communities.
Previously, Joy was the Director of Communications at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, where she oversaw and delivered communications to support the mission and advance strategic goals.
Joy has worked at the intersection of technology, society, and policy across a broad range of contexts – education, sustainability, the environment, economic development, poverty alleviation, health care, and law. Her areas of expertise include public affairs, branding, crisis management, digital communications, and partnerships. She also specializes in talent development, project management, building organizational capacity, and bridging diverse stakeholders.
• Joy advised the City of New York on NYC's Green New Deal and long-term strategic plan, OneNYC 2050. She oversaw public outreach efforts to over 16k New Yorkers and managed advisory boards with subject matter experts from academia, nonprofits, government, labor, advocacy, and business. As a senior consultant on the HR&A Advisors team, Joy worked on NYC's urban policy issues including cybersecurity, economic inequality, climate change, resiliency, workforce development, and civic participation.
• For her clients in the aerospace, energy, and security sectors, she worked on initiatives including digital transformation strategy, artificial intelligence market research, data center planning, negotiation communications, marketing campaigns, visual branding, and strategic partnerships.
• At Microsoft Research, as Senior Communications Manager Joy translated fundamental scientific research into compelling stories for academic and non-academic, industry and non-industry audiences around the world. As part of a global virtual team, Joy helped coordinate communications across Microsoft's research labs in Seattle, Cambridge (Massachusetts), Cambridge (UK), New York City, Bangalore, and Beijing.
• As the Public Affairs Officer for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China, Joy partnered with the World Health Organization (WHO) to address SARS, the global health epidemic, and trained Chinese government officials on how to handle international press briefings during the crisis.
• For Cisco, she served as Senior Communications Advisor and Speechwriter for Cisco’s China President.
• As Public Affairs Manager at Burson-Marsteller, Joy managed PR, crisis communications, and media relations for Intel, Qualcomm, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, BP, American Airlines, the Special Olympics, and the Government of Indonesia.
• While working at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Joy trained diplomats to prepare them for entering programs at Harvard's Kennedy School.
Joy graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American Literature. She is interested in sustainability, diversity, fairness, grassroots politics, the future of work, and the arts. She loves languages and speaks Mandarin Chinese and French.
