First as a scientist and now as an executive, Jennifer Sample has woven a career defined by her drive to make maximum impact.
“I’m super excited about the next big thing that’s going to change the world, and I really enjoy rolling up my sleeves, finding the devil in the details and pushing things out the other end of the hype cycle,” she said.
The recently hired chief technology officer of Empower AI, Sample is a doctorate-level physical chemist, emerging technology expert and the holder of 10 patents. She worked most recently at Accenture Federal Services and began her career at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory bridging the gap between the most innovative university-published research and real-world defense and space applications.
Now, her focus is on driving Empower AI’s technology vision, strategy and execution for government customers. A major focus is supporting government customers with modernization initiatives in which AI can help. Sample said Empower AI is a good match for her technical skill set and people-oriented personality.
“I want to have the most impact that I can with my time that I’ve devoted to my career,” she said. “I have a lot of ideas and experience to share, and being in a role where I have the ability to set the technology strategy is deeply satisfying for me. That’s what I came here for, and it’s definitely delivered so far.”
Sample said her focus now is on leading teams in an AI-native world as government agencies increasingly lean into solutions driven by large language models and gain better understandings of its applications. Additionally, the company is solidifying relationships as a trusted partner to government agencies navigating an AI-driven world that has already taken off in the commercial sector.
One example is Empower AI’s longstanding relationship with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) that has been bolstered by applied AI. The company reviews health care providers’ claims for accuracy in a process that requires attention to details regarding whether a procedure was done with an overnight stay in a hospital or as an outpatient. The outcomes can add up to billions of dollars.
“As a technology company, that’s where we come in,” she said. “We find ways to take advantage of technologies like AI to expand sample sizes and analysis and in the process free people to do more strategic activities involving critical thinking.”
The entire ecosystem of agencies and contractors can work together toward common goals, improving public services and elevating the mission, she said.
High Risk, High Reward
Sample brings years of hands-on experience to her role. At Johns Hopkins, she thrived working on problems that were both rare and hard, she said, sometimes tackling only six to 10 projects a year.
“Coming in as the nanotechnology person, I instantly was thrown all of the hardest problems that had never been solved before,” she said. “It’s high risk and high reward, and they don’t all pay off.”
Because of some early successes, she was asked to lead teams of scientists, paving the way for a career that would begin to have a different approach.
“I was making an impact in a different way, leading teams to be their best — and also matchmaking between the problems in the external environment, the sponsors of the research and our organizational capabilities,” she said.
But not all the problems she was handed could be solved through nanotechnology. Instead, she grew her understanding that specific technologies weren’t necessarily where she wanted to spend her time.
She dabbled in applied research, including a NASA mission called Parker Solar Probe where she worked with a team doing early internal research and development projects to demonstrate the feasibility of white ceramics on the heat shield. What they learned enabled this mission and ultimately launched in 2018, she said.
One of Sample’s patents involved using carbon nanotubes in space as a thermal interface material.
“They couldn’t use the traditional materials to connect a new spectrometer to the outside during a Hubble refurbishment mission,” she said. “We patented an approach to do that with carbon nanotubes.”
Another patent came about as Sample and her research and development team were learning ways to better detect anthrax and other bioaerosols in the mail.
As she was increasingly asked to lead teams of scientists and researchers, Sample’s leadership career flourished. Outgoing by nature, she defies the trope of the odd and curmudgeonly scientist. Over time, she embraced the idea of making more impact by assuming leadership positions that leveraged both people skills and technical expertise.
“That was a good move because then I got to explore the entire technology spectrum,” she said. “I launched programs at Johns Hopkins in quantum computing, biotechnology for defense, AI, robotics autonomy and machine learning.”
She’s stuck with that route ever since, returning to school at MIT where she obtained her MBA. The data-driven, evidence-based business curriculum opened her eyes toward other types of impact she could have. She got the itch to have more immediate impact through different opportunities and eventually landed at Accenture Federal Services where she served first as director of research, then as a managing director.
Working with clients on a daily basis, Sample delved into the world of digital transformation, applied AI and modernization aimed at mission delivery for federal clients like the FBI and IRS. After years in larger organizations, Sample again pivoted to have impact in a different way through her current work at Empower AI.
Sample saw potential everywhere and an endless plethora of new opportunities. Choosing what to focus on has been one of the most monumental decisions of her career. For now, she knows it’s AI.
Artificial intelligence is “this thing that’s going to change the world,” Sample said. “You can feel it. You can tell. And I’ve been recognizing those things from a very early age.”
Dixie Cup Science
One of Sample’s earliest school memories is of her teacher holding a Dixie cup, the small kind with little blue flowers.
“She poured water into it until it started to kind of bubble over, and she asked us a question I’d never asked myself before: ‘Why doesn’t the water fill up flat and then start spilling over? Why does it have this point where it kind of bubbles over before it starts to drip out? And then we started brainstorming.”
That lesson in surface tension was part of Sample’s gifted and talented educational program at the schools she attended in Hanover, Penn. To this day, she credits her early education with laying the groundwork for the successful career she now enjoys.
Another early memory involved learning BASIC programming on her school’s TRS-80. The computer was new, and getting to make the trip to the administrative offices to use it was treated as a “very solemn thing,” she said.
“It was almost like a pilgrimage when the little kids were taken to the room where the computer was,” she said. “It made such an impression on me.”
As a student at MIT, Sample came into contact with legendary advice from Gary Gensler, who was a faculty member at the time. His modus operandi, she recalled, was spending at least 25% of his time on social priorities, such as networking.
“For me, that was very eye-opening,” she said. “Networking and relationships are incredibly important, and that has paid so many dividends.”
Another piece of advice she values is the 80-20 principle where you’re going to make 80% of your impact with 20% of your time. Instead of trying to accomplish many things, she said, it works better to pick one or two must-do things on a post-it note attached to a monitor.
“Otherwise, it’s hard to keep your eye on the prize and get that thing done that you came here to do,” she said. “That was very powerful for me and it’s a lesson I’ve taken with me ever since.”
Sample has been a competitive athlete for many years. She has more than 50 marathons to her credit, has completed several triathlons and competed at the national level in the Olympic distance. She enjoys spending time with her teen son and her husband, who also holds a doctorate and has dedicated his career to defense technology and science advising.
“I’m very driven,” she said, “and that transcends my personal and professional lives. We are all here to accomplish things.”