Dr. Diana Pallais

Dr. Diana Pallais has a track record with leadership roles in the corporate, non-profit, and academic sectors. This diversified exposure has helped her discern the challenges and opportunities introduced with the advent of the AI economy. She is excited to bring her blended perspective to Loyola’s mission to prepare its students to lead and thrive through this consequential market shift. 

At Microsoft, she served in leadership positions in corporate strategy, product management, marketing, and business development, and she launched Microsoft’s suite of AI offerings.  A hallmark of her career at Microsoft was multi-disciplinary work built on the belief that it is possible to serve the public good from a private sector platform. She brought together resources and expertise that advanced societal goals and created shareholder value.  For example, she drove public-private partnerships (PPP) and global development initiatives, resulting in over 100 PPPs globally that served underprivileged constituencies and public policy goals while also driving growth strategies for Microsoft. 

As an NGO leader she also worked across the public-private divide to deliver transformational results for her organization’s beneficiaries. As an academic at the University of Washington, she relished her role as a teacher and researcher on economic development and international political economy. 

Underpinning this versatility across sectors is her own lived experience as an immigrant who came to the United States, finding a new home in New Orleans after fleeing a civil war in her native Nicaragua. Adaptability has therefore been the defining trait across her personal and professional journey. 

She now lives in Seattle with her wife, Dr. Judy Aks. They have two college-aged children, Sebastián and Sofía.   

A proud Loyola alumna (Political Science, 1991), she also holds a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Washington.