{"id":1396,"date":"2025-01-22T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T13:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/?post_type=cu_story&p=1396"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T20:40:11","slug":"leading-social-impact-at-google-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/story\/leading-social-impact-at-google-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Social Impact at Google and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Leading Social Impact at Google and Beyond\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Shona Brown (BEng\u201987) spent nearly a decade building and scaling Google’s operations and social impact efforts in the Bay Area, but first developed her critical thinking skills and a passion for technology on Carleton\u2019s campus.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brown, a Canadian-born graduate of Carleton\u2019s Bachelor of Computer Systems Engineering, moved to California to complete her PhD and postdoctoral degree at Stanford University after obtaining her master\u2019s degree from Oxford University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown joined Google\u2019s executive team in 2003 and led the company\u2019s technology for social impact efforts from 2011 to 2013 before transitioning into an advisory role. During her time at Google, she was heavily involved in the company\u2019s renewable energy efforts and building out Google operations in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a thread of technology that runs through my career, and specifically, using technology to solve difficult problems and in particular to address important societal issues,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown explained that one project that had a significant impact on the trajectory of her career was when she led an initiative to put solar panels on the roofs of Google buildings in the early 2000s. The purpose was to demonstrate to other companies what was possible for office sustainability practices. This led to a decade-long billion-dollar project to invest, scale, and mature the solar and wind industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cYou can make a difference by being focused and thinking about an outcome you want. In our case, we wanted renewable energy to be cheaper than coal,\u201d said Brown.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the end of her time with Google, Brown began serving on a variety of boards, including for private and public sector companies, Foundations, and non-profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last decade and a half of her career she has dedicated increasing time to working on non-profit boards including The Nature Conservancy, the Knight Foundation, and Code for America among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the first organizations she worked with was the Exploratorium: The Museum of Science, Art & Human Perception in San Francisco. The museum runs a global initiative that builds exhibits around the world focused on STEM education and ultimately, helps museum-goers build critical thinking skills and learn how they can play a role in building a more sustainable, democratic world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown initially became interested in philanthropic causes that focused on three areas still of great importance to her today: STEM, a functioning democracy, and helping others develop critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that people can, objectively, talk about all of the facts presented and come to their own opinions,\u201d said Brown who is also a recipient of the A.D. Dunton Alumni Award of Distinction \u2013 Carleton\u2019s highest alumni honour, and was awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in recognition of her ground-breaking leadership and innovation in engineering, social media, and business in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a no-brainer that she would remain involved with a number of causes that used technology to better the world once she left Google. Brown credits her time leading social impact efforts at the tech giant for helping her transition into her work with such impactful, diverse organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI consider myself very fortunate and while I\u2019ve worked hard and brought some of the right skills to the table, there\u2019s a lot of luck involved. I like to think that it\u2019s a Canadian sensibility, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true. If you have some sense of social responsibility and you feel like you\u2019re successful because you stood on the shoulders of others, it\u2019s natural to want to help in whatever way is appropriate.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


When asked what she\u2019s most proud of, Brown said she\u2019s glad she\u2019s been able to help others foster their talents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not reflected in one goal. It\u2019s reflected in hundreds if not thousands of people,\u201d said Brown. \u201cMy career has let me spend time with promising, young leaders. I can give them a little advice and a little wisdom so they can go and make great things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shona Brown (BEng\u201987) spent nearly a decade building and scaling Google’s operations and social impact efforts in the Bay Area, but first developed her critical thinking skills and a passion for technology on Carleton\u2019s campus. \u201cThere\u2019s been a thread of technology that runs through my career, and specifically, using technology to solve difficult problems and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":1436,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[36,25],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-1396","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-alumni","cu_story_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/1396\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/advancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}