Davar Ardalan

Iran Davar Ardalan (born April 1, 1964) is an AI strategist and storyteller with a career spanning Booz Allen, National Geographic, NPR, and the White House Presidential Innovation Fellowship program. She has led significant research on large language models and risk mitigation, and led AI integration and digital transformation initiatives across sectors.

Known professionally as Davar Ardalan, she is the former founder of TulipAI, former Executive Producer of Audio at National Geographic, and has served as co-chair of the Cultural Heritage and AI track at ITU's AI for Good. Prior to this, she was deputy director of the White House Presidential Innovation Fellowship Program in Washington, D.C. She was also a long-time journalist at NPR News, where she helped shape the news shows Weekend Edition and Morning Edition.

From 2018 to 2022, Ardalan was the founder and chief storytelling officer at IVOW (Intelligent Voices of Wisdom), which championed culturally conscious data strategies across multiple industries, from academia to development and enterprise. In April 2021, Project Voice awarded IVOW the Google Developer of the Year for Sina, the Storyteller.

Ardalan previously served as Managing Editor at Hanson Robotics. Ardalan is also active as a visual artist, working in acrylic and collage with themes related to artificial intelligence.

In 2025, Ardalan was a finalist in two categories of the Booz Allen Gen AI Academy Awards for her innovative work in generative AI and storytelling. She has been recognized with 2023 and 2024 Signal Awards for her work with National Geographic, and recognized with a NASA Team Leadership award for Space Apps, two NABJ Awards, a Gracie Award from the American Women in Radio and Television and a shout-out in the comic strip Zippy. In May 2014, she was the recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor, for individual achievement and for promoting cultural unity.

She is the author of two books, My Name is Iran and The Persian Square. A third book co-authored by Ardalan, AI for Community, explores the role of AI in human flourishing and will be published by Taylor & Francis in 2025.