Building Systems that serve in the age of AI

Soad Abbadi is one of nine rising community leaders who took part in Aspen Digital’s Community & Tech Leaders Initiative. Over the course of a year, the cohort. deepened their understanding of emerging technologies and explored how community perspectives could shape the innovation ecosystem. This blogpost and accompanying resource was produced at the conclusion of the Initiative. 

My career has always been rooted in one question: how do we build systems that protect people before harm occurs? For more than a decade in public health, that question guided my work at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where I helped shape research and community engagement to ensure that the people most affected by health inequities had a voice in the development of FDA-regulated products. Public health taught me that our greatest successes are often invisible: safe medicines, trusted food, and effective regulations exist because institutions anticipated risk rather than reacted to catastrophe. That perspective fundamentally shaped how I began thinking about technology. As artificial intelligence becomes embedded in every aspect of our lives, the challenge before us is no longer whether innovation should move quickly, but whether governance can evolve quickly enough to protect the public without stifling progress.

When I was affected by the DOGE reduction in force, Aspen became more than a fellowship—it became an anchor. At a time when I was navigating uncertainty, the Aspen Digital Fellowship gave me an intellectual home and a community of leaders equally committed to ensuring that technology serves the public good. Rather than viewing my layoff as an ending, Aspen reframed it as an opportunity to apply everything I had learned in public health to one of the defining challenges of our time. The fellowship challenged me to think beyond healthcare alone and consider how trust, accountability, and community engagement should shape the future of AI. It reminded me that meaningful leadership is not tied to a job title but to a commitment to solving problems that matter.

The FDA itself was born from public outrage over unsafe food and pharmaceuticals, proving that regulation has historically emerged when innovation outpaced public protection. We are approaching a similar inflection point with artificial intelligence. The speed at which technology is being developed demands a proactive —not reactive — public health response. Just as regulatory frameworks helped establish safety, transparency, and public confidence in medicine and food, we now need modern institutions capable of governing AI and emerging technologies with the same rigor. To me, technology governance is not simply a policy issue; it is a public health imperative. The future depends on building systems that earn trust before trust is lost, and my experience at the intersection of public health, community engagement, and Aspen Digital has strengthened my commitment to help build those systems.

The views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Aspen Institute, its programs, staff, volunteers, participants, or its trustees.