Kayla is a 2021 Marshall Scholar researching applications of AI to environmental problems such as climate change. Through the Marshall, she received an MPhil in Politics and International Studies from Cambridge and is currently pursuing an MSc in Climate Change and International Development at the University of East Anglia. She is interested in research that builds understanding and collaborative partnerships among scientists and policy practitioners. She is a Research Assistant at Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, working on the AI Futures and Responsibility team.
Kayla worked for six years in nuclear policy, with primary interests in safeguards for nuclear energy facilities, environmental and climatic consequences of nuclear detonations, cyber threats to nuclear arsenals, and challenges to nuclear warhead verification for treaty purposes.
She was the 2019-20 recipient of the Fulbright United Kingdom Open Award, collaborating with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a member of several UK diplomatic delegations. She has previously worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Sandia National Laboratories, and the United Nations. In her free time, she is a jazz and blues keyboardist.