TheBridge profile: Lisa Hayes
Name: Lisa Hayes
Current city: Washington, DC
Current job: Senior Director, Tech Policy & Senior Counsel at TikTok
Past job: Interim Co-CEO, Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT); Senior Counsel at the American Constitution Society & law partner in private practice
Q. Favorite spot for a coffee meeting? Kafe Leopold in Georgetown.
Q. Describe how a skill you learned in a previous job helped you in your current job. I have worked in very different industries through my career, and each one has had a huge learning curve. A recent study theorized that “generalists” are more likely to succeed in a world where AI is playing a more dominant role - my fingers are crossed that my experience adapting serves me well in the future!
Q. Job advice in three words? Retain your ethics.
Q. How are you (or your company, org, nonprofit) currently bridging the gap between innovation and regulation? For more than 25 years, bridging that gap has been one of CDT’s primary goals. Our team collaborates with government, industry, and civil society to craft solutions to difficult public policy issues. Our focus is on ensuring that democracy and individual rights are at the center of the digital revolution.
Q. What can innovators learn from policymakers? It’s important to consider how your decisions might impact our democracy as a whole.
Q. What can policymakers learn from innovators? We get better outcomes when teams include people from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Q. Favorite book/podcast/long-form article you recommend? Anything by William Langewiesche. His writing style is captivating, and the work is backed up by hard facts and fantastic investigative reporting.
Q. Living person you admire? My husband. He started his career as a Navy SEAL, then had to learn an entirely new skill set after going to grad school in his 30s. Let’s just say we spent our 20’s leading really different lives. Every day he reminds me that authenticity can be a rare commodity in DC, but that our country needs people willing to speak truth, even when it’s unpopular. As an added bonus, he is exceptional in a crisis, like when a pet vomits on the carpet.
Q. Favorite app? I rely on dozens of apps every day, but am most excited by the ones that respect my privacy, and don’t sell my data. And that bring me food and wine.
Q. Embarrassing work moment? Any of the many times my first year as a young lawyer when I appeared in court with a client only to have the judge assume I was a paralegal, and ask me to step back into the gallery. Not the way to inspire confidence in your clients.
Q. Last time you were completely unplugged? We try to take an annual backpacking trip to an area without cell phone service. Most recently, we hiked into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in the Cascades, where you can see wild goats and swim in glacier-fed lakes -- which was just as cold as it sounds.
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