Untangling the World Wide Web

Photo Credit: Russ Campbell Photography; Story by: Clea Simon

Lisa Macpherson (ALI ’19) understands the power of the internet. As the policy director of Public Knowledge, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank and advocacy organization that works at the intersection of copyright, telecommunications, and internet law, she works to craft policy that balances free speech and content moderation for the safety of all.

This work, the Connecticut resident explains, grew naturally out of her successful 20-plus-year career in consumer marketing. As the chief marketing officer for brands like Fisher-Price, Timberland, and Hallmark, “I was one of the generation of marketers who really helped create and drive digital marketing capabilities,” said Macpherson. However, as one of the people responsible for the kind of digital ads “that follow you all over the internet,” she gradually became concerned about such tactics’ longer-term effects, both on societal connections and on democracy itself.

The Advanced Leadership Initiative gave her a chance to address those concerns. Long interested in gender equity, she originally thought to spend her time at ALI focusing on the empowerment of women. A course at the Harvard Kennedy School Digital Platforms, Journalism and Information set her on her current course. Saying the course “changed my life,” she explained: “It made me realize I was not crazy about the negative impacts of digital technology.” Taking into consideration her extensive professional experience, she realized she had a larger role to play “using my digital marketing expertise to try to correct for the negative impacts of digital marketing technologies.”

On a larger scale, ALI inspired her with the notion of a  theory of change: “This idea of articulating my hypothesis as a theory of change — why will what I do drive positive impact? — was very, very important for me,” explained Macpherson. Another formative idea was the “person, problem, pathway” framework that called for her to utilize her skills and abilities and discover what she needed to learn to make that impact. ALI also taught her to value an integrative approach to solving complex problems. For Macpherson, that meant consulting  with Professor Jay Winsten, associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Director of the School's Frank Stanton Center for Health Communication, who spearheaded a campaign against drunk driving, as well as attending readings at Harvard Law School to understand the legal framework of her interests. “Integrating those different disciplines and lenses was incredibly important,” she said.

ALI’s integrative approach prompted her to draw on her professional experience to better grasp the issues facing the public. “The single biggest thing was that I understood the financial incentives that drive the behavior of digital platforms,” she said. “Understanding that part of the business model helped me think about how do we change those incentives or how do we undermine those incentives? And my conclusion was public policy: You have to regulate them.”

This realization led to the Shorenstein Center, where a Digital Platforms & Democracy fellow connected Macpherson to Public Knowledge, first as a policy fellow, in 2020, and, once that one-year fellowship had ended, as a permanent staffer, leading to her current position. Although she lived in Virginia at the time she started at Public Knowledge, following the pandemic, the native New Englander moved and now works out of her home in Connecticut, with trips to Washington, D.C., roughly once a month.

Lisa’s primary passion remains what she calls “healthy information systems.” She also envisions a national privacy law and is working to build bipartisan support for such legislation. Next up, she foresees issues with AI, particularly with its use of intellectual property. “In a world of AI how do we make sure we have responsible AI,” she asked. “And that the benefits of AI are broadly shared instead of monopolized by the dominant firms?”

These questions, she acknowledges, have no easy answers. Still, she’s glad she joined the fight. “I have run large teams and hundred-million-dollar budgets, and yet nothing I have done is as personally satisfying as the work I've done since ALI.”