Sophia Tu

Sophia Tu

Senior Manager, IBM Corporate Citizenship

Sophia Tu is a Senior Manager for Corporate Citizenship at IBM, where she leads a number of philanthropic initiatives using IBM’s technology and talent to address challenges in health, sustainability, and cities.

Sophia helped launch and currently leads IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge, which provides grants of technical and consulting expertise to city leaders around the world to tackle critical urban challenges. To date, this initiative has made investments valued at over $65 million in 130 cities around the world, and its impact has been recognized by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Committee for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy.

Sophia co-leads IBM Health Corps, a new global pro-bono program working to address health disparities by partnering with public and civil sector organizations across the world, bringing IBM talent and tools to help improve health access, services and outcomes.

She also leads World Community Grid, which harnesses unused computing power donated by over 700,000 volunteers around the world to support scientific research in health and sustainability. The initiative has enabled important advances in the search for more effective treatments for Zika, Ebola, cancer, HIV/AIDs, and neglected tropical diseases, as well as more efficient materials for water filtration and capturing solar energy, earning recognition from the White House and the Webby Awards.

Before joining IBM, Sophia led the development of a 20-city residential energy efficiency program for the County of San Mateo, California, and co-founded Gumball Capital, a nonprofit that engaged students with microfinance and entrepreneurship.

She is a founding member of the Asian American Impact Fund, a New York City giving circle, and a graduate of Stanford University and of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. A California native, she enjoys backpacking, gymnastics and springboard diving, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Transformations for Communities: Designing the Urban System

Auditorium, Lerner Hall

Nearly 80% of U.S. populations live in urban areas, and the impact is not always positive. How do we empower communities to solve the challenges that cities face? This panel takes a view of cities at the systems level in order to examine integrative approaches to fostering community, shared purpose and equitable living. Going beyond […]

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