Google.org Executive to Help Obama Transition Team on Technology and Innovation

Sonal Shah, head of global development at Google.org, the search-engine company’s philanthropic arm, has been named co-chair of a working group that will propose policies for President-elect Barack Obama’s administration in the areas of technology, innovation, and government reform.

Ms. Shah, also a member of the Obama transition project’s advisory board, is co-founder of Indicorps, a nonprofit group that offers fellowships to Indian-Americans working on development projects in India.

The transition project has announced the leaders of seven policy working groups to propose priorities for the new administration when it takes over on January 20. The others will focus on the economy, education, energy and environment, health care, immigration, and national security.

The head of the education working group — Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education at Stanford University – -is a somewhat controversial choice in the nonprofit world. Ms. Darling-Hammond, a leading education thinker, has published several studies that questioned the effectiveness of Teach for America, the nonprofit group that places recent college graduates as teachers in schools in poor neighborhoods.