From UGA to the Bay
The Ganeshan sisters share a similar path to becoming leaders in their fields.
Like many siblings, Smitha and Shreya Ganeshan have plenty in common.
Each sister studied at the University of Georgia as a Foundation Fellow, led tours through UGA’s Visitors Center, and took a keen interest in technology.
Still, the Ganeshans, who grew up in Johns Creek, took different paths when it came to their careers. One chose medicine; the other dove into the tech industry.
Dr. Smitha Ganeshan BS ’14 is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the medical director for clinical AI programs at the UCSF Medical Center.
Her younger sister, Shreya BS ’18, AB ’18, is a data scientist working on Google Photos and Google One teams, where she uses data analysis to improve user experience.
Today, they both work in the greater Bay Area and live about 10 minutes apart in the Haight-Ashbury District of San Francisco.
Clinical Innovation
Smitha always knew she wanted to care for patients. But after watching her aging grandparents’ experience in health care, she also resolved to help improve the broader health system.
While at UGA, she worked at the Athens Nurses Clinic (now the Athens Wellness Clinic) while studying biology through the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. As a Foundation Fellow, she had the opportunity to travel and conduct research with faculty. She took full advantage.
“Mentorship at Georgia is unparalleled. I was fortunate to learn from so many incredible mentors.”
Dr. Smitha Ganeshan
“Mentorship at Georgia is unparalleled,” she says. “I was fortunate to learn from so many incredible mentors.”
After earning a Truman Scholarship, Smitha went to Harvard to earn an M.B.A. and an M.D.
“I went to business school to learn how to build effective teams,” she says. It also taught her to evaluate and implement new technology in clinical settings.
At UCSF, Smitha cares for patients and evaluates which artificial intelligence tools the hospital should adopt to improve workflows and allow clinicians to spend time with their patients.
“When a patient comes into the hospital, often they have a complicated medical history,” she says, “especially at a place like UCSF.”
Smitha helps implement tools that can summarize pages and pages of notes and medical histories, so clinicians have the information they need before meeting with patients.
When it comes to improving patients’ experience, Smitha says, “I think the health care industry has a lot to learn from other industries.”
If Smitha needs advice about the tech industry, she can always check with her little sister.
A Picture’s Worth
One and a half billion. That’s how many people use Google Photos worldwide. Shreya’s job is to use data to improve the product for all those users.
That involves building models and digging into how users interact with the product.
She also experiments with these models to define new metrics and create tools from her findings. But the job is much more than numbers to her.
“I think developing relationships with professors early catapulted my curiosity about statistics, about using data to solve really thorny problems.”
Shreya Geneshan
“I think images are sort of an untapped source of richness about our lives,” she says.
Making those images—full of memories and connections—shareable and accessible enriches people’s lives, she says.
Before landing at Google, Shreya followed her sister to UGA, drawn by Smitha’s experience and the range of activities. Rather than work through an established path like pre-med, Shreya says she used her Foundation Fellowship as an “incubator” to explore ideas. She majored in statistics in Franklin College and economics in the Terry College of Business.
“Developing relationships with professors early catapulted my curiosity about statistics, about using data to solve really thorny problems,” she says.
Siblinghood
The sisters feel fortunate to be so close to each other, even if so far from Johns Creek. They see each other almost every week, but they’re trying to get one more Ganeshan to San Francisco.
The youngest of the three siblings, Shashank BS ’23, AB ’23, is another Georgia grad and former Foundation Fellow. He’s working at Microsoft in Seattle, but his sisters are intent on luring him down to the Bay. And something about that bond continues to bring them together through shared experiences—like UGA—while also forging their own paths.