Frida E. Polli

Polli received her B.A from Dartmouth College with Honors in 1994, and completed pre-medical postbaccalaureate training at Dartmouth and Havard from 1994-1996. She earned a Ph.D. from Suffolk University in 2007, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2012.

Polli began her research career as a predoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Psychiatric Neuroimaging Group / Martinos Biomedical Imaging Center. She was then a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).^[1] During this time, she authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles, including publications in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Neuroscience, and Brain.^[2]

In 2013, Polli launched pymetrics, a company that applied artificial intelligence and behavioral science to workforce decision-making, with a former MIT colleague.^[3] As a 38-year-old single mother, she stated she did not fit the typical profile of a technology startup founder.^[4][5] She said the company allowed her to "put her scientific and academic knowledge to work to build a business solving real world problems".^[6] The company had the stated aim of modernizing hiring with neuroscience-based assessments and machine learning, with Polli arguing that algorithmic systems can reduce bias in hiring if properly designed and audited by emphasizing a philosophy of evaluating potential over pedigree.^{[7][8][9][10]} It was included in several industry lists including CNBC Upstart 100 (2018),^[11] the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers (2018),^[12] Forbes AI 50 (2019),^[13] and Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Startup (2019).^[14] The company was acquired by Harver in 2022, after which she became its chief data science officer.^[15]

In 2021, Polli lobbied for New York City legislation requiring audits of automated employment software for bias.^[16][17][18] From 2020 to 2022, Polli was part of an industry group aimed at lessening the disruptive impact of COVID on the workforce through technology.^[19] In 2023, Polli founded Alethia AI, a company focused on ethical AI application.^[20] In 2024, Polli was announced as Visiting Innovation Scholar at the Schwarzmann College of Computing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).^[2] In 2025, she founded the Female Medicine Through Machine Learning initiative at MIT focused on women’s health research using large datasets and AI.^[21][22]

In 2010, she won a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation. In 2011, she was finalist in the MIT 100K Entrepreneur Competition.^[2] In 2012, Polli received a Robert S. Kaplan Life Sciences Fellowship from Harvard Business School.^[23] Polli was named as one of Inc.'s Female Founders 100 in 2019, and Entrepreneur's Top 100 Powerful Women in 2020.^[2][24][25] In 2021, she was in Fast Company's World Changing Ideas.^[26] In 2022, she was inducted into YPO.^[2] In 2024, she was named 100 Brilliant Women in AI.^[27]