Biography
Jia Chen is a global product leader at the intersection of technology and healthcare at IBM. During his career she has led the launch of new products serving millions of users, and has held leadership roles in industry solutions, strategic partnerships and AI client centers at IBM corporate headquarters as well as in emerging markets. She was a first-generation graduate student at Yale, where she earned her MS and PhD degrees in Physics, and says that Yale has been a source of inspiration for her.
As an alumni volunteer, Chen has served as a board member of the Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA) and is currently the group’s vice-chair. She has been co-chair of the annual "Where Do I Go from Yale" career event for graduate students and postdocs; a GSAA representative on the Wilbur Cross Medal Selection Committee; and an advocate for collaboration among the GSAA, the Office of Career Strategy (OCS), the Graduate Student Association (GSA), and the YAA’s Career, Life and Yale (CLY) initiative to engage broad groups of graduate students and alumni.
Chen has hosted virtual and in-person GSAS admission events for incoming graduate students, and has been an active panelist for CLY events such as the "Careers in Data & the Digital Economy" workshop. She mentors and supports physics, engineering and biomed graduate students. She is in her second year as a member of the YAA Board of Governors, where she serves on the Nominating Committee.