Margaret O’Mara is an expert on high-tech history and a Howard & Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington.

She received her BA in English and History from Northwestern University, and her MA and PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to her academic career, she was a staff member to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, where she was a policy analyst – working on urban economic development, health care, and welfare reform.

Margaret is the author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, which was a Financial Times and Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019. She is also the author of Cities of Knowledge, Pivotal Tuesdays, and the co-author to the college history textbook, The American Pageant.

She is a frequent contributor to the Opinion page of The New York Times, and she has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC World News, and PBS Frontline.