Biography
Kayla is a Research Assistant on CFI’s AI Futures and Responsibility team, examining applications of AI to environmental problems such as climate change. As a 2021 Marshall Scholar, 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 a Research Affiliate at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and she is interested in research that builds understanding and collaborative partnerships among scientists and policy practitioners.
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. In her previous work at CFI, she has examined risks posed by the increased introduction of AI in defence settings, including nuclear command and control.
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.
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