Thao Nguyen Kelly

Policy Fellow, AY2025-2026

Thao Nguyen Kelly's headshot

Thao is a dedicated technology practitioner focused on the intersection of technology, democracy, and policy. She currently serves as Head of Civics Integrity at Google, where she leads the company’s global efforts on elections integrity. In this role, she works to ensure the security and integrity of information about elections across Google’s products around the world. Before her current role, Thao was a technology national security analyst at Eurasia Group, providing expert analysis and advising clients on complex technology-related issues including on the US-China technology competition, data governance and privacy issues, AI policy developments, cybersecurity challenges, and other emerging tech issues globally. Prior to that, Thao lived in Singapore, where she built Airbnb’s first strategic initiatives and policy partnerships team for Asia, which included leading key partnerships in China, India, Japan, Korea, and ASEAN.

Thao began her career in public service as a US diplomat and worked for the US State Department in Beijing, Jakarta, and Washington. She is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and George Washington University and is an Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leader, a National Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, and a Term Member with the Council on Foreign Relations.