Monday, October 15th –
Panels, Solo Talks & Workshops 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Tuesday, October 16th –
Panels, Solo Talks + Happy Hour
9:00 AM – 7:30 PM
Wednesday, October 17th –
Career Fair – 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM
This is our fourth annual Tech Inclusion Conference, convening the tech industry to focus on solutions to diversity and inclusion!
Our theme this year is “Voices of Innovation” – featuring diverse, underrepresented voices building the innovative technologies and cultures of our future.
Join us for a full day of workshops on day one, day two features keynotes, panel discussions, solo talks and an interactive session focusing on inclusive innovation across the tech ecosystem. Day three features opportunities to connect tech companies to candidates during our career fair.
Spend the three days learning new solutions, meeting diverse people who care, being stretched in a safe environment, and gaining new tools and strength to advocate for change.

Danielle DeRuiter-Williams
CEO at The Justice Collective
Danielle DeRuiter-Williams, MBA, MA, MURP is a social change strategist and CEO of The Justice Collective. She is committed to organizational transformation that unapologetically centers race and class equity in every context. A gifted trainer and facilitator Danielle brings both humor and vulnerability to her engagements. With clients, Danielle works closely to surface underlying barriers to change and to build the capacity of clients to go beyond what they perceive to be possible to do what is necessary to achieve their equity goals. While leading TJC, Danielle founded and led the development of the San Francisco Planning Department’s first Racial and Ethnic Equity Initiative which includes the creation and implementation of a comprehensive organizational strategy that identifies and leverages opportunities to advance racial equity. Danielle holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies from Grand Valley State University, Master’s Degrees from the University of California Los Angeles in both Urban and Regional Planning and Afro-American Studies and an MBA from Mills College with a concentration in Equitable Organizational Development and Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

John Maeda, Automattic, Inc
Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion
John Maeda is an American executive spearheading a new convergence across the design + technology industries. He is Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion at Automattic, Inc. and previously served as a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a world-leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. An internationally recognized speaker and author, his books include The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code and Redesigning Leadership. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering + Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from Arizona State U, and a PhD from University of Tsukuba in Japan.

Arlan Hamilton
Founder, Managing Partner at Backstage Capital
Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5M into 100 startups led by underestimated founders and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz. Arlan entered the venture investing world from an unconventional path. Before launching Backstage Capital, she authored the groundbreaking blog "Your Daily Lesbian Moment", which she grew to a monthly readership of 50,000 fans worldwide. She has written for AOL, SuicideGirls, and Curve Magazine, and founded and published the internationally distributed indie magazine Interlude. Arlan was also a live music production professional, having served as a tour coordinator to numerous international artists including Toni Braxton, and Jason Derulo. In 2018, Arlan co-founded, along with Investment Partner Christie Pitts, Backstage Studio, a new venture studio designed to build products, services, and initiatives that serve the mission of eliminating underrepresentation in tech by empowering founders and their teams to succeed. Backstage is a fully-remote team that has quickly scaled to 17 employees working together with an ever-expanding roster of world-class mentors and partners. Arlan and Backstage Studio were the subjects of Season 7 of the popular Gimlet Media podcast, StartUp.

Laura Montoya
Founder, Managing Partner of Accel Impact
Laura is the Founder and Managing Partner of Accel Impact, which includes Accel.AI, a global Non-Profit Institute lowering the barriers to entry in engineering artificial intelligence, and the Latinx in AI Coalition an initiative to create harmony and opportunity for Latinx in AI. She has been described as a natural and versatile leader with a passion for AI, Computer Science, Research, and Psychology. She has a Bachelors of Science in Biology, Physical Science, and Human Development. She jumpstarted her career in software engineering at Intuit revamping their Quickbooks online platform. She is a Director with Women Who Code, a global non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers.

Daisy Ozim
Director at Blockchain for Social Justice
Daisy Ozim is the founder of Resilient Wellness, a public health blockchain protocol designed to reestablish cultural medicine access for marginalized communities. As a board member for the Bay Area Entrepeneurship Alliance, she works to ensure access to resources and support for emerging entrepreneurs. She is a Commissioner for the Alameda Public Health Commission and her work is centered around decolonizing philanthropy, technology and public policy. Daisy also runs the Blockchain for Social Justice collective. A platform designed to promote education and access of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency for marginalized communities.

Tigran Sloyan
CEO at CodeSignal
Tigran Sloyan is the CEO of CodeSignal (formerly CodeFights), a skills-based assessment platform whose mission is to discover, develop and promote technical talent. Companies of all sizes have been using CodeSignal’s assessment platform to test and interview potential candidate. The widely accepted Coding ScoreTM is becoming the standard in technical assessment as a measure of a developer's overall implementation and problem-solving ability. By leading the industry in objective skills-based assessments, CodeSignal has been a pioneer in removing conscious and unconscious bias from the hiring process.

Paria Rajai
Founder, CEO at ModelExpand
Paria Rajai is the Founder and CEO of ModelExpand, a diversity and inclusion advisory firm that specializes in employer branding and talent acquisition. Paria has been working on diversity initiatives for nearly a decade and some of her notable work includes designing global women in tech events for Yahoo, influencer campaigns with the UN and being selected as a mentor for the State Department’s TechWomen program. Paria led the marketing team at Hackbright Academy - the country’s first coding school for women - working with companies such as Amazon, Yelp and Slack to diversify their teams. She also helped organize the inaugural Women of MENA in Tech Conference in Silicon Valley. Paria was recently profiled in Forbes for being a leader and advocate in the world of tech and diversity.

Nidhi Gupta
Senior Vice President of Technology at Hired
Nidhi Gupta is Senior Vice President of Technology at Hired, a marketplace that matches tech talent with the world’s most innovative companies. Nidhi leads the company’s global engineering, developer operations and product teams. Nidhi is a skilled engineer and product executive who is passionate about building and growing thriving product and engineering organizations that deliver world-class products at scale. Prior to Hired, Nidhi was Senior Vice President of Product and Engineering at Tophatter and Upwork. Previously, she was instrumental in leading mobiTV and Ning through hyper-growth and expansion.

Amy Cappellanti-Wolf
CHRO at Symantec
Amy Cappellanti-Wolf is Chief Human Resources Officer for Symantec, the world’s largest cyber security software company. In addition to serving on the executive team and managing Symantec’s global human resources function, she leads Symantec’s workplace/workforce strategy and planning, real estate and facilities functions. During her career, Cappellanti-Wolf has led human resources teams in high tech, entertainment and consumer products industries. She has extensive experience in organizational effectiveness, leadership and talent development, and business transformations, including extensive M&A and divestiture experiences. Prior to joining Symantec, Cappellanti-Wolf was Chief HR officer for Silver Spring Networks, where she was part of the leadership team that delivered a successful IPO for Silver Spring Networks in March 2013. Cappellanti-Wolf previously held key human resources leadership roles at Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, The Walt Disney Company, and Frito-Lay. She holds an M.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations and a B.S. in Journalism and Public Relations, both from West Virginia University. Amy serves on the non-profit board, Silicon Valley Children’s Fund, focused on foster children and also serves an advisor to several private companies.

Greg Clark
CEO at Symantec
Mr. Clark has more than 23 years of leadership experience successfully growing technology companies through innovation, focus and execution. He has a strong technology background that spans security, cloud services, supply chain and network management. During his tenure at Blue Coat, Mr. Clark has led the company through several strategic acquisitions that have accelerated the company’s growth and position in the rapidly growing cyber security market. In March, Mr. Clark guided Blue Coat through the sale of the company from private-equity firm Thoma Bravo to Bain Capital for $2.4 billion, with the intent of returning the company to the public markets. Prior to joining Blue Coat, Mr. Clark was President and CEO of Mincom, a global software and services provider to asset-intensive industries. At Mincom, he expanded the company’s market opportunity and revenue with the addition of cloud-based solutions. The company was acquired by the ABB Group in July 2011. Before joining Mincom, Mr. Clark served as President and Chief Executive Officer at E2open (NASDAQ: EOPN), a leader in supply chain networks. Mr. Clark was one of E2open’s founders and transformed E2Open from an early startup into a market-leading solutions provider supporting more than 15,000 customers worldwide. Earlier in his career, Mr. Clark founded security software firm Dascom. In 1999, IBM acquired the company, and the technology became the foundation for the Tivoli security product line. At IBM, Mr. Clark was a Distinguished Engineer and vice president of IBM's Tivoli Systems, where he was instrumental in defining and selling IBM security and management products. He previously held senior roles with global IT companies, such as AT&T Unix Software Operation and Unix System Labs. Mr. Clark holds a B.S. from Griffith University.

Sheila Jordan
CIO at Symantec
Sheila Jordan is senior vice president and chief information officer at Symantec, the global leader in cyber security. She is responsible for driving Symantec's information technology strategy and operations, ensuring that the company has the right talent, stays ahead of technology trends and maximizes the value of technology investments. Her mission has been to transform the company while driving increased productivity, revenue optimization, and more simple and intuitive experiences overall for Symantec’s global workforce, customers and partners. Since joining Symantec in February 2014, Sheila has driven transformational change in the following areas: • Insourced all of IT operations from a global outsourcer, resulting in significant cost savings and increased agility. • Completed two significant divestitures and six acquisitions, enabling Symantec to become a more focused cyber security company. Sheila was responsible for driving the integration and transformation required to ensure those M&A activities were successful. • Migrated most of the Consumer Business applications and workloads to public cloud—over 200 in one year’s time with no business disruption. • Built a globally diverse, world class IT organization with over 50% of employees based in India. Prior to joining Symantec, Sheila served as senior vice president of Communication and Collaboration IT at Cisco Systems. Within her purview at Cisco were collaboration platforms, user experience and support, and communications, collaboration and mobility services. In addition, she ran most global applications across the company, including Finance, HR and Engineering for a workforce of 65,000 employees. Earlier in her career Sheila worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she was senior vice president of Destination Disney. A key architect of the strategic planning process, she was responsible for delivering profitable growth. She was instrumental in integrating marketing, sales, and services across the organization as Disney transformed its business from a product-centric to a guest-centric organization. In June 2016, Sheila joined the Board of Directors of FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) (NASDAQ:FDS), a $1.2 billion global company that delivers the world's best insight and information to investment professionals through superior analytics, service, content, and technology. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology.

Samir Kapuria
EVP & GM at Symantec
Samir Kapuria is Executive Vice President and General Manager of Symantec’s Cyber Security Services business in which he has overall responsibility for more than 1000 cyber warriors encompassing Symantec’s global SOC services, consulting services, and worldwide intelligence organization. Kapuria joined Symantec in 2004 through the acquisition of @stake, a leading cyber security consulting firm, where he served as an executive advisor for global enterprise customers, and led the business strategy and services organization. During his tenure at Symantec, Kapuria has demonstrated innovation agility in driving market evolutions, including Symantec's first to market intelligence solutions and its industry leading cyber war simulation programs. His unique blend of domain expertise, technical execution and dynamic leadership has delivered wide impact results for his business area, to customers in the field and across the industry. Kapuria is a senior executive recognized for driving business strategy into structured execution, resulting in value growth for employees, customers, shareholders and the community. Kapuria regularly speaks at prominent security conferences, think tanks and leadership events on the topics of innovation, business strategy, threat intelligence and cyber security. He has been invited to share his insights at the Harvard Kennedy School, GCHQ, the World Knowledge Forum, NATO, RSA and many more. Kapuria serves on several corporate and technical advisory boards and often counsels high-level government officials and leading enterprises worldwide. He possesses a distinct view on next generation global influences and is regularly turned to by leading broadcasts and publications for his perspective on information security industry trends and drivers.

Ran Tao
Software Engineer at Google
Ran is a software engineer on Daydream, currently working on augmented reality (AR) features in ARCore. He actively participates in the Daydream Accessibility efforts and has a keen interest in making augmented and virtual reality (VR) useful to those with disabilities. He graduated from University of California, San Diego with a bachelors degree in computer science, where he studied machine learning and computer graphics. Previously he worked on implementing user interfaces in Google Earth VR, improving Google Ads machine learning pipeline, and building VR testing automation. He is a full time wheelchair user after a snowboarding accident in 2016 injured his spinal cord. However, he holds a bright outlook towards the future of immersive computing and robotics in improving the lives of those with mobility impairments, and hopes to make these technologies more accessible to those who need it.

Lauren Ryan
VP of New Products at Greenhouse Software
Lauren Ryan is the Vice President of New Products at Greenhouse. After leading the Greenhouse Recruiting and Growth Marketing teams, she is building the New Products department to further the company’s mission of creating solutions that help customers make Talent a strategic business function. Before joining Greenhouse, Lauren worked at Google as a Financial Operations Manager. If you see someone crossing San Francisco on a white Vespa with a yoga mat...that’s her. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

Miriam Aguirre
Senior Vice President of Engineering at Skillz
Miriam Aguirre is the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, which was recently named the fastest-growing company in America by Inc. Magazine. As a vital member of the Skillz leadership team, she has seen the importance of fostering a strong, diverse engineering team firsthand. Prior to this, she worked as a software engineer and architect for companies including HubAnalytics, Krush Inc., Financial Engines and Hewlett-Packard. An avid gaming enthusiast, she has been featured in VentureBeat and CIO Magazine for her passion and efforts to bring diversity to the technology and gaming industries. Miriam grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after graduating from MIT. Today, she can be found leading the Skillz engineering team and working to advance diversity in the eSports industry.

Dr. Jaana Remes
Partner at McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Dr. Jaana Remes is an economist and a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey & Company's business and economics research arm, based in San Francisco. Since 2003, Jaana has led MGI's research on urbanization, productivity, competitiveness, and growth. Her latest research maps the deployment of smart city solutions and sizes the potential benefits to urban citizens’ health, safety, commute times, and other factors impacting quality of life. Jaana leads MGI’s Urban World research series that includes mapping of economic power of cities, identifying global consumer groups shaping global demand, and mapping of the global company landscape; as well as the patterns of urban growth across the Americas. Her long term research interests also include productivity prospects in the digital age, global growth prospects in an era of demographic decline, analyses of how different policies have contributed to industry competitiveness and growth; as well as in-depth assessments of the barriers to competitiveness and growth across a range of economies, including the US, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden, and South Korea. She has led MGI's research on energy, with a focus on understanding the microeconomic underpinnings of global energy demand and the opportunity to reduce energy consumption through higher energy productivity. She advises global business and government leaders on related topics and frequently contributes to policy debates through articles and conference presentations. Jaana has a Ph.D. on applied economies from Stanford University and an MSc degree in economics and philosophy from the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Strategic Foresight Initiative of the Atlantic Council. She also serves on the Board of directors of Girl Scouts Heart of Central California.

Annie Rihn
Vice President of Recruiting at Zillow Group
Annie Rihn is the vice president of recruiting at Zillow Group. Annie leads Zillow Group’s recruiting team, which supports hiring for nine locations and ten consumer and business brands. Since Annie joined Zillow as one of its first ten employees in 2005, the company has grown into the largest real estate network on the Web and mobile, with over 2,500 employees nationwide. Prior to joining Zillow, Annie was a corporate recruiter at T-Mobile and Washington Mutual. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Biology from Whitman College.

Aldona Clottey
Vice President of Premier Agent Platform at Zillow Group
Aldona Clottey is a Vice President of Zillow Group’s Premier Agent Platform, where she leads the product and engineering teams focused on building mobile and desktop apps to help real estate professionals successfully manage their businesses. Aldona started her career as a mechanical engineer designing jet engines for Pratt & Whitney. Since then she has held product roles at Trulia (part of Zillow Group), Amazon and Siebel Systems. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Harvard University and MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Aldona currently serves on the board of The Bay Area Children’s Theatre. On weekends, she focuses on how she can mold her two young daughters into women who build.

Lisa Abeyta
Founder, CEO at APPCityLife
Lisa is Founder and CEO of APPCityLife and Cofounder of Hautepreneurs. In 2017, she was named the 7th most influential voice globally on government technology, and her company, APPCityLife, has been named a top 100 Civic Tech Company in 2016, and 2017, 2018. The company was a winner of the 2017 Smart Cities Innovation Showcase and the 2017 New Mexico Innovation awards. Lisa serves on the Congressional Small Business Advisory Council to Congresswoman Michell Lujan Grisham and also serves in leadership for City Alive. Since 2013, she has been a judge for the prestigious International Stevie Business Awards for Women. She is also a former recipient of the New Mexico Women of Influence and New Mexico Technology Council’s Women in Tech awards. She is a columnist for Inc. Magazine and is a frequent speaker on the issues of government, technology and women in leadership.

Danielle Cass
Silicon Valley Initiative Director at Amnesty International
Danielle Cass is Director of Amnesty International’s new Silicon Valley Initiative, which aims to connect with the technology sector to transform the human rights movement. She explores how technology can expand Amnesty’s reach and impact, how to mitigate the risks of technologies that pose a human rights issue, and how to leverage technologies to protect human rights and human rights defenders. Danielle joined Amnesty International in October 2017 from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab, where she established USAID’s first-ever Silicon Valley presence in January 2015 to engage the technology, innovation and investment communities in global development.

Rebekah Bastian
Vice President of Community and Culture at Zillow Group
Rebekah Bastian is Vice President of Community & Culture at Zillow Group, leading efforts around Equity & Belonging, Social Impact Products and Cultural Engagement. Rebekah was one of Zillow's first employees, coming over from Microsoft in 2005, and spent her first 12 years leading product development across many areas of the company. Rebekah serves on the Board of Directors of Bellwether Housing and the Advisory Board for the University of Washington School of Mechanical Engineering. She is also an advisor to technology startups, a respected thought leader and community partner. She writes articles in multiple publications and is a frequent speaker at conferences and community events. She has been recognized in the Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, the Inman 33 People Changing the Real Estate Industry and the Female Founders Alliance Champion Awards. Rebekah earned her Master of Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Berkeley and Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington. She is also a mentor, a mother to two boys and an aerial acrobat.

Jes Osrow
Co-Founder, COO at The Rise Journey
Jes Osrow gets sh*t done, has the energy of four people, and only puts her name on things that represent her best. Her goal is to talk transparently about HR, recruitment, and talent development to contribute to conversations of fundamental change in approaches and assumptions in the People Ops realms. As Co-Founder of The Rise Journey (www.therisejourney.com), Jes works with growth stage companies around strategy to build their best team and an empowering workplace culture. With a commitment to community and social change, Rise provides purpose-driven, results-oriented support with the underlying belief that every company has the power to positively impact the community and the world. And you don't have to sacrifice success or profitability to do it. As a Talent Development Specialist (www.josrow.com), her domains include career coaching, creating and leading workshops (D&I, Invisible Disabilities, Combating Imposter Syndrome, etc), and as of late, the creator of a series of self-paced e-workbooks around personal branding.

Lia Garvin
Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager at Google
Lia Garvin is a Diversity & Inclusion Program Manager at Google, where she focuses on driving strategic programming and initiatives across hiring, progression, team culture, and product inclusion for the Daydream AR/VR team. Prior to this, she worked as a UX Program Manager/Producer at Google, Apple, and Microsoft, building processes and tools for her design teams centered around inclusion and transparency in communication.

Tyne Johnson
Founder at The Black Bay Area
Born and raised in the Bay Area, Tyne Johnson is the creator and founder of The Black Bay Area, a social media platform that connects the Black community in the Bay. Tyne currently works as a Technical Sourcer, finding diversity and technical talent. She holds a Master's of Public Administration from California State University East Bay and a undergrad degree from San Francisco State University. You can follow The Black Bay Area on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Lus RC Mendel
Director of Interviewing at Karat
Lus RC, they/them, Director of Interviewing at Karat, a company that specializes in technical interviewing. Karat interviewer engineers have conducted over 20,000 interviews with a focus on predictability, consistency and candidate experience. By analyzing feedback and outcomes, Karat has identified specific best practices for screening in top talent and leveling the playing field. Before Karat, Lus managed engineering teams at Indiegogo and Rackspace, founded a couple startups of their own, worked as a software engineer and research consultant, and graduated with a couple computer science degrees from MIT. Lus has given talks and workshops at Velocity, NCWIT, Apple, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and various universities and schools. PS - If you're an engineer or middle manager with a specific mentor-type question, shoot me an email at lus@lusrc.com to schedule a phone call or coffee chat. I'd be honored to hear your story and offer encouragement if not actual advice on topics such as asking for a raise, negotiating an offer, handling workplace frustrations and figuring out career goals and stepping stones.

Naitik Mehta
CEO at NextBillion.org
Naitik Mehta is a 22-year old entrepreneur passionate about social impact and the CEO of NextBillion.org. He is the recipient of the 25 Under 25 Award from the founders of the Internet, BCBusiness' Top 30 Under 30, one of Canada's Top 3 Student Entrepreneurs and 25 other awards around the world. Having previously worked with Microsoft and Facebook, Naitik is now leading NextBillion.org — building the largest online community of students with disabilities in tech by providing 100% free access to mentors & jobs from inclusive employers.

Rebecca Ackermann
Interaction Designer at Google
Rebecca Ackermann is a designer who loves collaborating on complex challenges. Currently, she's crafting immersive experiences for education with Google Expeditions. Before that, she worked at agencies and startups in New York and San Francisco, launching healthcare transparency tools at Amino, redesigning the LA Times online with Code & Theory, and simplifying financial literacy with NerdWallet.

Hayley Leibson
Founder at Lady in Tech
Hayley Leibson is an empathetic technologist and inclusion advocate with an entrepreneurial drive aspiring to make an impact and pursue interesting work that matters. She is the founder of Lady in Tech, an award-winning technology and lifestyle media company for next-generation female tech leaders and entrepreneurs. She writes a column for Forbes that inspires, motivates and moves millennial women to enter the tech industry and build impactful products at scale to improve the world. Hayley is featured in BBC World Service, ABC, Tech Forward, BBC 100 Women and OZY.

Tina Jackson
Co-Founder at PRI Leadership
Tina is a dynamic facilitator, speaker, executive coach and author. Tina helps clients gain the confidence and skill to communicate, motivate and lead with great impact. She designs and delivers customized workshops on leadership, executive presence, emotional intelligence, conversational intelligence, and team inclusion. Whether addressing a room of 8 or of over 300, Tina makes magic happen. As an executive coach, Tina serves a thought partner to executives and emerging leaders. She is a graduate of the Hudson Institute’s Master Coach program and serves on their corporate faculty. As an ICF-certified Master Coach, she holds the highest credential in the field of coaching. She is co-author of A Practical Guide to Working with Diversity and has designed programs and authored materials for over 50 courses. Her clients include high tech, Fortune 500 companies, professional services firms and the intelligence community.

Ahyiana Angel
Founder, Chief Encourager at Mayzie Media
Ahyiana Angel is the Founder of Mayzie Media, a podcast network curated for women, and host of the Switch, Pivot or Quit podcast. A traditionally published author, Ahyiana is a seasoned executor who eventually blocked out the world’s ideas of success, quit her highly coveted position at the NBA, moved to London and traveled the world for a stint, then followed her passion in writing to find her purpose through encouragement. Mastering the art of note-worthy ideation, Ahyiana taps into her more than 12 years of professional business marketing experience to lend her thoughts on professional development, digital marketing, contemporary brand styling and more. However, Ahyiana enters her zone of genius when speaking to audiences about any of her 4 Ps: publicity, publishing, personal development and podcasting. Ahyiana and her work have been featured by Forbes, Black Enterprise, The Muse, Career Contessa, Create & Cultivate and more. The Switch, Pivot or Quit Podcast has been featured by girlboss.com, “The 6 Best Podcasts To Listen To For Career Advice” as well as entrepreneur.com’s “12 Women-Run Podcasts You Should Be Listening To.”

Racquel Russell
VP of Govt. Relations and Public Affairs at Zillow Group
Racquel Russell is the Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs at Zillow Group. In her role, she is responsible for the team that creates key public-private partnerships with government and non-government organizations (NGOs) at the local, regional and national level. Previously, Racquel led President Barack Obama’s Office of Urban Affairs and Economic Mobility where she focused on numerous issues including affordable housing, and community and economic development. Prior to joining the White House in September 2010, Racquel held leadership positions for U.S. Senators Tom Carper and Bob Graham, as well as for the National Governors Association. Racquel received her Juris Doctor from the George Washington University Law School and holds a Bachelor of Science in Communications from the University of Miami.

Kai Frazier
Founder, CEO at Curated x Kai
Kai Frazier is a historian (B.A History) and innovative educator (M.Ed) passionate about utilizing technology to provide inclusive opportunities and increased accessibility in cultural institutions for students & young adults. She is the founder & CEO of Curated x Kai, an award-winning virtual reality company which films inclusive VR field trips in museums and other cultural institutions. Through intense outreach, CxK delivers those experiences to students & young adults, including those in underserved communities. Before creating Curated x Kai, she worked with several museums such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, specializing in digital strategy and content creation. Due to her work in the museum space, Kai was appointed to the Board of Directors for The Museum Computer Network, MCN, which advances the digital transformation of museums. Kai is a DC Fem Tech Award recipient, which celebrates power women in code, design, and data. In addition, Kai is a fellow of Facebook's Oculus Launchpad which provides people from underrepresented backgrounds funding and resources to ensure diversity of thought in the VR ecosystem. Her work has been featured in Forbes, NBC & Black Enterprise.

Mehul Patel
CEO at Hired
Mehul Patel is CEO of Hired, a marketplace that matches tech talent with the world’s most innovative companies. Hired combines intelligent job matching with unbiased career counseling to help people find a job they love. Through Hired, job candidates and companies have transparency into salary offers, competing opportunities and job details. This level of insight is unmatched, making the recruiting process quicker and more efficient than ever before. Hired was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with over 200 employees in offices in the United States, Canada, France, and the UK. Prior to Hired, Mehul was Executive-in-Residence at Crosslink Capital, where he focused on marketplace companies. He has held leadership positions at Lyft, Kaggle, (a marketplace for data scientists) and Axiom (a marketplace for lawyers). At Axiom, he led global expansion as the company scaled to more than $150mm in revenue.

Sivan Levaton
APPD at SMASH Program/Kapor Center
Sivan Levaton is the Alumni Partnerships + Programs Director at the Kapor Center's signature education program, SMASH. Sivan’s fervent belief in education as a lever for social change led her to work with a variety of organizations dedicated to equity in education. Formerly, she worked at The Posse Foundation in Chicago, First Graduate in San Francisco, and at a micro-finance EdTech startup in San Francisco. Sivan is a first-generation college student and a Posse Alumna. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a Master of Arts in Education from California State University – Los Angeles.

John Cheng
UX Researcher at Google
John Cheng is the User Experience Research lead for Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for Google Daydream. He specializes in qualitative user research methods, such as traditional lab testing, in-depth interviews, and ethnography. He has worked extensively in a range of industries and platforms, including social media, online retail, mobile/tablet, financial services, biotech, automotive, and gaming. He received his degree in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in HCI from Stanford University. In his non-working hours, he enjoys exploring various home-gastronomy pursuits, including bread-baking, barbecue, and coffee/espresso.

Joy Leach
Co-Founder at PRI Leadership
Based in Santa Barbara, Joy is a sought-after facilitator, speaker and master coach who changes people’s lives through meaningful conversation and transformational facilitation. She is a renowned speaker who has presented to leaders around the globe, addressing groups from 10 to over 1,000, helping clients build their presence, confidence, and skills. As a trusted partner with clients around the globe, Joy leverages her background as a designer and organizational development consultant to co-create and deliver customized programs used by high tech companies, Fortune 500 corporations, and government agencies. As a coach, Joy works with C-suite executives and leaders to support the development and productivity of their organizations and teams; she is passionate about supporting leaders to live their lives from the ‘inside out’ with awareness, intention and clarity. She brings to her work over 20 years leading teams and inspiring growth and loyalty in those she leads. Joy serves as an integral member of the Hudson Leadership Team, Hudson Institute of Coaching, where she trains and supervises coaches-in-training. She holds an M.S. in Counseling Education from University of Buffalo and has completed doctoral studies in Behavioral Science at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is certified in dozens of tools including MBTI, HBDI, and the Bar-On EQi. She is a graduate of the Art and Practice of Leadership Development at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Organization Development program at Georgetown University. She is the author of multiple works including Personal Power, and A Practical Guide to Working with Diversity.

Ryan Carson
CEO at Treehouse

Steven Huang
Head of Diversity & Inclusion at Culture Amp
Steven Huang left his career as an actuary to join Facebook as their first HR analyst. Ever since, he has become a champion of using data modeling to solve big problems. As the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Culture Amp, his sights are set on creating a more inclusive future by leveraging his unique brand of statistics and storytelling. Doing D&I work at Culture Amp requires a balance of internal and external initiatives. Internally, Steven's programs give each employee a chance to understand why diversity and inclusion matters to them. Rather than owning internal D&I, Steven simply enables employees to drive their own initiatives while coordinating it into a cohesive D&I strategy. Externally, Steven embeds cross-functional learnings into Culture Amp's Diversity and Inclusion products and services, such as the Diversity & Inclusion Survey, for 1,700+ customers across the globe.

Barbara H. Whye
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer/VP Human Resources at Intel Corporation
Barbara H. Whye is Intel’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and Chief Human Resources Officer for the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group (TSCG), the company’s largest business group. This group is responsible for aligning technology, engineering, product design and business direction to extend Intel’s strategy and speed execution across the client device and IoT segments — all core to growth in the smart and connected compute era. She also leads Intel’s Diversity in Technology initiative as the company endeavors to reach its goal of full representation in its U.S. workforce by the end of 2018. A champion of Intel’s culture of inclusion, with 21 years of experience, she develops strategies that accelerate progress and integrate diversity and inclusion across the ecosystem to enhance innovation and drive business results. Barbara joined Intel in 1995 as an engineer and held a number of leadership roles driving large scale and enterprise wide change. Prior to joining HR and Global Diversity and Inclusion in 2015, she spent 15 years in key leadership and project engineering roles responsible for acquiring and starting up new facilities for Intel Corporation worldwide, including Talent Management as an expatriate in San José, Costa Rica. Barbara also led the investment strategy for Intel’s global (STEM) education portfolio, with an emphasis on girls and underserved populations, and was a strategist on Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls' education and empowerment. Barbara earned her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina and her MBA from the University’s Darla Moore School of Business. Recognized as a force for positive social change, she has been awarded with the 2014 National Society of Black Engineers Career Excellence Award, a 2015 Society of Women Engineers Spark Award, and a 2016 Inspiring Women of South Carolina Award.

Dom Brassey
Brand Marketing at Mapbox
Dom Brassey (she/they) is a San Francisco Bay Area-based communications consultant, technologist, and game designer currently working on the Brand Marketing team at Mapbox, a live location data platform powering your favorite location-based app experiences and the next generation of multi-dimensional business intelligence data visualizations. Formerly: Lesbians Who Tech; Prison University Project, and 500 Startups (Batch 14). Currently a facilitator in the Women in Management program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Alex Locust
Workshop Facilitator at Glamputee Consulting
Alex Locust is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and a proud, biracial "glamputee" spreading the word about social justice, one workshop at a time. Whether on the runway or in a counseling session, Alex aspires to embody the tenets of social justice and fiercely advocates for equity in all community spaces. Armed with bombastic charm, whimsical humor, and a sharp wit, Alex synthesizes professional insight with lived experience to create engaging workshops grounded in cultural humility, intersectionality, and fostering empathetic, holistic views of marginalized communities. He specializes in work supporting people with disabilities and is passionately committed to raising awareness of the disability justice movement. He hopes to continue facilitating candid dialogues in a broad spectrum of environments in order to empower others to champion disability civil rights as well.

Elisha Greenwell
Founder at Black Joy Parade
Elisha Greenwell is a northern California native and 12-year advertising vet. She is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Business Economics and Creative Writing, and the Academy of Art University with an M.F.A in Advertising Strategy. Throughout her career she has developed award-winning brand strategy for companies such as Intel, Nike, Target, Starbucks and Playstation. Elisha currently helps lead brand reputation strategy for Facebook's Consumer marketing team. She is also the founder of Black Joy Parade which held its inaugural event on February 25, 2018 in Oakland, Ca., welcoming 14K people to celebrate the Black experience and our influence on cultures past, present and future.

Laura Moran
Director, UniteSF at San Francisco Chamber of Commerce
Laura Moran serves as the Director of UniteSF, the SF Chamber of Commerce's Education and Workforce Initiative. She brings her business and education experience together to support business, civic and education leaders together to promote more equitable and inclusive pathways for SF young people to careers in Tech and Bay Area Innovation workforce. She has served as Chief Service Officer and Chief Strategy Officer in Oakland and San Francisco Unified School Districts over the past 10 years. Laura began in her career in Finance at Charles Schwab & Co as Vice President of Organizational Development and was an Associate partners at Interaction Associates building organizations ability to tap the power of employee participation in a wide range of public and private companies.

Lily Jampol, PhD
Senior D&I Consultant & Behavioral Scientist at Employera
Dr. Lily Jampol is a people scientist and head of the diversity & inclusion practices at Employera, a consulting firm that helps companies solve difficult challenges in attracting, hiring and keeping the right people. She has worked with a wide variety of companies around the world to help them make their workplaces safer, more welcoming places for people of all backgrounds. Lily has a PhD in social psychology from Cornell, a BA in political science from Mount Holyoke, and was previously a professor at top-tier business schools in the UK, where her work on behavioral biases in organizations was funded by the National Science Foundation & the UK Royal Society. She combines data-driven insights, a deep and rich background in behavioral science, and a conscientious, context-driven approach into practical, innovative, and effective DE&I strategy.

Tami M. Forman
Executive Director At Path Forward
Tami M. Forman is the Executive Director of Path Forward, a nonprofit organization that creates mid-career internship programs to ease the transition back to work for women (and men) after taking a break for raising children or other caregiving responsibilities. Path Forward trains HR teams and hiring managers on how to support these programs successfully and provides support to participants to make the experience successful. Tami is building this organization from the ground up, working with donors, partners and participants to fulfill the organization’s mission. Tami spent a decade as a tech marketing executive with data solutions provider, Return Path. Before that she worked in book publishing at Simon & Schuster and Houghton Mifflin and held senior-level web editorial positions at iVillage and News Corporation. Tami is passionate about helping women achieve work/life integration so they can find career success and personal satisfaction. She lives in New York City with her husband and two kids, aged 9 and 11.

Aubrey Blanche
Global Head of Diversity & Belonging at Atlassian
Aubrey Blanche is the Global Head of Diversity & Belonging at Atlassian. There, she works with teams across the business to provide greater opportunities for everyone to join Atlassian and do the best work of their lives there. Her work spans the talent lifecycle from increasing access to technical education for underrepresented minorities through recruiting, retention, and advancement of all Atlassians. She relies heavily on empirical social science in her work, and has developed a new team-level paradigm for external diversity reporting. She believes that leading with empathy is the key to driving meaningful, sustainable change and creating highly effective teams. In all areas of her work, she seeks to design effective interventions, programs, and talent practices that create equal opportunities for all Atlassians, and for the global tech industry. She is heavily involved in multiple industry groups seeking to define new standards for company transparency, reporting, and investment in diversity & inclusion. She is an advisor to SheStarts, a Sydney-based accelerator focused exclusively on supporting female founders, BeVisible, and Joonko. Follow her on Twitter at @adblanche.

Steve Workman
Engineering Manager at Yelp, Inc.
Steve (he/him) has been an Engineering Manager at Yelp for the past 2 years, helping his team grow in their ability to contribute to the company's mission. Steve is an advocate for inclusive practices in management and their role in effective team dynamics, and is currently part of an effort to promote Inclusive Communications among the engineering management team at Yelp.

Nidhi Kalra
Senior Technology Policy Adviser at Office of Senator Kamala Harris
Nidhi Kalra is the senior technology policy adviser to Senator Kamala D. Harris. Prior to joining Senator Harris's team, Nidhi was a senior information scientist at the RAND Corporation, director of RAND's San Francisco Bay Area office, and co-director of RAND's Center for Decision Making Under Uncertainty. Her research focused on autonomous vehicle policy, climate change adaptation, and tools and methods that help people and organizations make better decisions amid deep uncertainty. She spearheaded RAND's autonomous vehicle policy work. Nidhi is the lead author of the study “Driving to Safety: How Many Miles of Driving Would It Take to Demonstrate Autonomous Vehicle Reliability? (2016)” and co-author of the flagship report “Autonomous Vehicle Technology: A Guide for Policymakers (2016).” She has over ten years of experience in autonomous vehicle policy and is committed to using her expertise to further evidence-based policy making. She has testified on autonomous vehicle policy at three congressional hearings and was a member of the California Road Charge Technical Advisory Committee, which provides guidance to the State legislature on road use charge alternatives to the gas tax. Nidhi also helps organizations improve how they make robust decisions, particularly in the face of climate change, which she views as the most urgent problem of our time. She led a project to ensure long-term water security in Lima, Peru and is helping the State of California make long-term investments in the Sacramento-San Juaquin Delta. In 2013, she served as a senior decision scientist in the Office of the Chief Economist of Sustainable Development at the World Bank, where she helped launch the World Bank's portfolio in robust decision making. Nidhi received her Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute.

Maica Gil
Founder at Heroikka
Founder of the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum and Co-Founder at Heroikka Maica’s extensive experience in entrepreneurship, government and non-profits, has helped her create a platform for diverse international organizations to collaborate, share resources and give visibility to various projects and initiatives, start-ups and businesses specific to women at the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum. As Co-Founder at Heroikka, Maica is passionate and committed to closing the gap by connecting women-led projects, funding and support systems around the world. She is also on the Board of Directors for the “”Association of American European Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations”” and Co- Founder of the California – Spain Chamber of Commerce.

Ritu Narayan
Founder, CEO at Zūm
Founder and CEO of Zūm, Ritu Narayan is the driving force behind the leading solution for safe rides and care for children. Prior to starting Zūm, Ritu worked over 15 years for top tech companies including eBay, Yahoo! and Oracle, where she built products used by millions while generating multi-millions in revenues. Ritu has a Master’s Degree in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a B.E. in Computer Engineering from the Delhi Institute of Technology.

Matthew Ström
Design Lead at Bitly
Matthew is a lead designer at Bitly. In the past, he has lead design teams at The Wall Street Journal and Soundcloud. He lives in Brooklyn with his dog, Tim. Matthew spends his free time applying math and science to things like ping pong and design systems.

Adimore Abili
Managing Director, Accelerators at AngelHack
Adi Abili is the Managing Director of Accelerators at AngelHack. Originally from London, Adi started her financial career in Luxembourg, before getting involved in the startup culture of the Silicon Valley. She worked briefly as an Analyst at both Base Ventures and Transmedia Capital, two VC firms based in the Bay Area. This ignited her passion for startups, shortly thereafter she began to work as a Director with legendary investor Tim Draper at his entrepreneurial school, Draper University. At AngelHack Adi works directly with global startups providing support and education to take ideas and make them into high-functioning startups, while expanding the AngelHack brand through an ever expanding network of advisors, investors, and mentors. Frequent collaboration with international markets, mentors and startups’ from around the world, including sections of Europe; The Island of St. Kitts; and Haiti is one of Adi’s primary focuses. She also works with global startup programs such as: Startup Chile; Stanford Bases Challenge; Verizon Challenge; and WOMENA. She currently maintains multiple board positions in Silicon Valley (Advisory Board for SXSW, Defy Ventures), and recently became a US Regional Director for Startup Global Ecosystem, a global virtual one week accelerator. Adi frequently speaks around the world, promoting and supporting entrepreneurship, and regularly speaks on diversity in tech, and gender tech inequality.

Yuliya Tarasava
Co-founder, COO at CNote
Yuliya Tarasava is a co-founder and COO of CNote. With the mission of closing the wealth gap, every dollar invested with CNote helps fund female and minority-led small businesses, affordable housing development, and financially underserved communities across America. Yuliya started her career on Wall Street in risk management and product development. For AMG Funds, she led the quantitative due diligence for mutual funds across multiple asset classes. Later at Summit Rock Advisors, she co-developed the proprietary analytics and risk management framework for a portfolio of over $10B in assets. Immediately prior to CNote, she was selected for Acumen’s Global Fellowship program. That led to her running strategy and operations for Juhudi Kilimo, a micro-financial institution and certified B-Corp in Nairobi, Kenya.

Orlando Harris
Dir., Career Services & Leadership Dev. at San Francisco State Uni.
Orlando Harris has over 25 years of business experience in executive business development and consultative sales. He is a graduate of Alabama A&M University, where he majored in Business and Computer Science with a minor concentration in Military Science. Additionally, Orlando spent 14 years as a reserve military officer with the United States Army. Orlando has experience in leadership roles guiding his teams to increased revenue, sales, growth and productivity. He has successfully worked with numerous branches of business to include but not limited to federal, state and local government, small to mid-tier companies and Fortune 1000 corporations throughout his career. To name a few, these companies include: ◦ Xerox Corporation ◦ Gartner Inc. ◦ American Express ◦ Hewlett Packard He also serves as an Advisory Council Member for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and a past advisory member for the Vallejo Unified School District. In January 2017, Orlando was named as the new Director of Career Services and Leadership Development (CSLD) at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Prior to his most recent role, he served on the executive team at the SFSU College of Business. Orlando was the first Director of Corporate Relations at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. There he was successful in implementing several strategic MBA Consulting Projects with organizations such as: Johnson & Johnson, Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, Chevron Energy Solutions, Wells Fargo, AT&T, VSP, City of Sacramento, and Intermatic.

Wendy De La Rosa
Co-Founder, Principal at Common Cents Lab
Wendy De La Rosa is a co-founder and principal at Common Cents Lab. She research focuses on how to help people make better financial decisions. Her work has been published in Scientific American, PBS Newshour, Forbes, and Tech Crunch. In addition, she was recently named a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree. Wendy is also a PhD at Stanford's Graduate School of Business focusing on consumer behavior. Prior to starting Common Cents Lab, Wendy worked at Google's first behavioral economics unit, helping to optimize product strategy and design, customer retention and engagement, and revenue across 30+ teams. Wendy was also a researcher at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where she collaborated with Dr. Adam Grant on research and application projects related to organizational behavior, employee motivation and burn-out. She was also a private equity investor at Goldman Sachs and Centerbridge Partners. Wendy holds a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Management and Finance from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She also holds a M. Phil in consumer behavior from Stanford's Graduate School of Business. In her spare time, Wendy leads two monthly behavioral economic reading and discussion series in New York City and San Francisco.

John Marble
Senior Strategist at Neurodiversity Pathways
John Marble is a writer and speaker on innovation and autistic issues. In 2009, he was appointed by President Obama to the United States Office of Personnel Management. There, his work focused on workforce development, innovation, and incorporating into government services the best practices and thinking of Silicon Valley. In addition to his White House service, he has served as an advisor and aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, Senator John Kerry, and Vice President Al Gore. In 2017, he joined Neurodiversity Pathways as a Senior Advisor. John lives in San Francisco.

Tiffany Price
Community Engagement Manager for the Kapor Center
Tiffany Price is the Community Engagement Manager for the Kapor Center, helping ensure smooth processes and facilitating strong partnership development. Prior to this role, Tiffany was an Education Program Fellow for The San Francisco Foundation where she helped manage the education grantmaking portfolio and also spent six years doing education policy research and evaluation, which fueled her desire to work more closely within her local community. She serves on the board of advisors for /dev/color, a non-profit that supports Silicon Valley Black software engineers, and serves on Hack Reactor’s Scholarship Advisory Committee. Tiffany is also a Ruby on Rails web developer and holds a Master’s degree in International Comparative Education from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and International Studies from Emory University.

James Pratt
VP of People Development at Gravity Payments
After more than 15 years building teams delivering a diverse portfolio of products, from early mobile apps (i.e 1998 early) to music players, James realized his true passion was creating work environments where people can thrive as whole, messy and complex human beings. James lives his passion in many ways. As an HR / People Ops leader, he helps companies build thriving work cultures. He is currently the VP of People Development at Gravity Payments. As the creator and teacher of the Art of Management program, he helps managers connect with themselves and their people to create human-friendly teams. As an ICF certified coach he helps members of the tech community find the authentic path in their career. Most recently James founded Silent Superheroes, a podcast that tells the stories of the millions of Americans working with a mental illness including his own experience with addiction and managing bipolar 2 disorder.

Frieda McAlear
Senior Research Associate at the Kapor Center
Frieda McAlear is a Senior Research Associate at the Kapor Center and one of the principal investigators of the Women of Color in Computing Researcher-Practitioner Collaborative. She has a decade of experience managing projects, developing evaluation and research methodology and building nonprofit technology capacity with socially progressive organizations in the Bay Area, Europe and Southern Africa. In 2013, she worked as an evaluator for an HIV/AIDS clinic serving villages in Lesotho and as a Program Coordinator for ZeroDivide in San Francisco in 2014. She holds a Masters of Research in Geography from Queen Mary, University of London, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Brussels.

Maurice Wilkins
Diversity, Equity and Belonging Manager at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Maurice is a former urban education leader turned Diversity and Belonging advocate. He currently leads Diversity, Equity, and Belonging at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. He also is the founder of TechNColor, an alliance for underrepresented people of color in tech that aims to create an inclusive and diverse community. Prior to joining CZI, he was the Head of Outreach at Outco, a job search and interview prep accelerator for software engineers. Maurice is a 2011 graduate of Morehouse College and a native Washingtonian.

Jessie Wusthoff
Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Clover Health
Jessie Wusthoff is the Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Bay Area healthcare technology company Clover Health. With a background in organizational behavior and learning & development, and an MBA with a focus in Organizational Behavior, she focuses on creating safe space dialogues to increase comfort around difficult workplace conversations. Jessie serves on the leadership team for Diversity Advocates and has had the pleasure of speaking at various organizations and conferences, including Box, Goodwill’s Neuroleadership Pathways program, CultureAmp’s Culture First conference and many more. A proven advocate of, and catalyst for, change Jessie has dedicated more than a decade to supporting women in leadership, creating awareness around the impact of unconscious bias and increasing the recognition of disability and intersectionality in the greater diversity and inclusion conversation.

Monique Pascual
Director of Apprenticeship & Instructional Service Agreements at City College of San Francisco
A San Francisco Bay Area Native, Monique currently holds the position of Director of Apprenticeship and Instructional Service Agreements at City College of San Francisco. Monique oversees Apprenticeship programs in Cybersecurity, Automotive Technology, and Construction Trades. After graduating from Holy Names High School in Oakland, she attended Howard University in Washington D.C. and the University of San Francisco earning a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Her commitment to community led her to pursue a Masters in Public Administration at the University of Southern California. She started her public service career with the City and County of San Francisco, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and worked for ten years specializing in workforce development. Monique is active in her community and serves on the Board of Directors at Holy Names High School. She and her husband have recently had a baby girl, and reside in Albany.

Angel L. Lewis
People Relations and Inclusion Lead at Wikimedia Foundation
Angel L. Lewis is the People Relations and Inclusion Lead at Wikimedia Foundation. She is collaborating with colleagues to lead comprehensive efforts to embed inclusive culture into the employee lifecycle and improve the employee experience. This approach has involved focusing on inclusion first, creating a culture where individuals feel a sense of belonging, fairness and feel heard. It has also involved working with numerous stakeholders across the organization to help everyone understand how they can play a role in creating an inclusive workplace. The topic of intersectionality has been widely discussed throughout the Foundation and there is an intentional focus on both quantitative and qualitative data to understand and work to improve the experiences of individuals existing in the intersections.

Willie Jackson
Consultant at ReadySet
With more than a decade of experience driving projects across a range of industries, Willie spends most of his time at the intersection of technology, behavior change, and inclusive leadership development. He's the founder and publisher of an online magazine for black men called Abernathy, an inclusion strategist and startup advisor, and a purveyor of exceptionally dry humor. Prior to his current work as an inclusion strategist, Willie served as Technical Lead of Seth Godin's altMBA program, an intensive, 4-week online workshop for high-performing individuals who want to level up and lead. A graduate of Florida State University (Information Technology), Willie resides in Oakland, California.

Gordon Swartz
Dean of the Edward S. Ageno School of Bus at Golden Gate Uni
Dr. Gordon Swartz holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Harvard University, a High Technology MBA from Northeastern University, and bachelor's degrees in nuclear engineering and political science from MIT. His professional background includes business school teaching, research and administration, and strategy consulting and development of high-growth organizations. Early in his academic career, Swartz served as the deputy dean of the MBA program at the London Business School, where he was also an assistant professor of marketing. More recently, he was the associate dean of executive education at Georgetown University, where he led the design and launch of the school's Global Executive MBA programs. Swartz has been a frequent speaker at the nation's elite business schools and until recently was adjunct professor in Northwestern University's master's degree program in predictive analytics. His articles and case studies have been published in distinguished academic journals, including the Journal of Service Research, Sloan Management Review, Marketing Management, and the Harvard Business Review. Prior to his work in academia, Swartz worked as a management consultant, providing clients with a wide range of go-to market strategy and implementation and market analysis services. As vice president of MarketBridge, Inc., he led major marketing, sales strategy and transformation efforts for Fortune Global 500 companies.

Danny J. Allen
Vice President and Tech Diversity Lead SAP Silicon Valley Labs
A seasoned technologist and serial entrepreneur, Danny has been able to turn a passion for change into an assignment at SAP Labs in Tech Diversity; dedicated to finding a self- sustaining method for ethnic inclusion via the natural complement to corporate profitability. He works with all SAP teams, while focusing on partnership and collaboration with our SAP ecosystem partners, customers and schools in three areas: • Talent pipeline alignment with the needs of industry • Tech industry engagement and embrace of difference, for maximizing profitability • Government partnering on the policy of inclusion. Prior to undertaking this diversity role, Danny led the global Cloud Operations and Service Delivery team within SAP’s UxD development team. From 2009 to 2016, he was responsible for the Operational Engineering and Architecture necessary to deploy SAP next-generation applications on various Cloud infrastructures; inclusive of methodologies for developing automated infrastructure management and security. During his 30+ year career in information systems, software development, voice/data/video infrastructure, operations, support and management, Danny has experienced and contributed to innovation in numerous industries: Computing, Banking, Engineering, Research, Broadcast and Telecommunications. Mr. Allen is a graduate of Swarthmore College, where he received a B.A. in Economics with coursework in Electrical Engineering, and Saint Mary’s College of California, where he received his Masters of Business Administration.

Orrian Willis
Sr. Workforce Development Specialist at City of San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development
Orrian Willis is a Sr. Workforce Development Specialist on the TechSF team at the City of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. After receiving his B.A. in Urban Studies and Planning from San Francisco State University, Orrian began his career in the workforce development space starting at Mission Hiring Hall as a Program Counselor and working his way up to Workforce Development Program Manager at the Mission Economic Development Agency. As a first generation college graduate, Orrian understands the barriers faced by many students and job seekers first hand and keeps this perspective front of mind when working to solve for workforce system challenges. Today, Orrian and the TechSF team work diligently to create stronger Public-Private Partnerships which result in hundreds of job placements per year for under-represented job seekers into tech careers. Although a semi-savvy traveler, he has always called the Bay Area his home – proudly.

Michelle Kim
CEO & Co-Founder at Awaken
Michelle Kim is a fierce immigrant queer woman of color entrepreneur challenging the status quo in tech. Michelle is the co-founder and CEO of Awaken (www.visionawaken.com), a leading provider of modern and interactive diversity, inclusion, and leadership workshops. Awaken's mission is to create compassionate space for uncomfortable conversations with tto develop inclusive leaders and teams. Prior to Awaken, Michelle had a successful career in both tech and management consulting, working with C-/VP-level executives to build high performing organizations around the world. While working in consulting and technology startups, she experienced and validated first-hand the urgent need for modern, up-to-date D&I education that go beyond just “checking the box.” Michelle has been a lifelong social justice activist and has served on a variety of organizations such as the LGBTQ Speakers Bureau, SF Human Rights Commission's Advisory Committee, and LYRIC nonprofit’s Board of Directors. Michelle is a passionate keynote speaker and writer -- she was named “Top Writer in Diversity” by Medium for her thought leadership, and is a contributor to Quartz at Work. Michelle has spoken at many renowned platforms such as Marketo’s Marketing Nation Summit, The Grace Hopper Celebration, Women in Leadership Conference by UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Culture Summit San Francisco, Amnesty International’s General Assembly, and more. Michelle graduated from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business with a passion for social entrepreneurship.

Lori Pourier
President at First Peoples Fund
Lori Lea Pourier grew up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is a member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe. Lori has been involved in the arts, social justice and community development fields for nearly three decades and has led First Peoples Fund since 1999. Her early work began at First Nations Development Institute and the International Indigenous Women’s Network. Dedicated to a vision of strengthening Native communities through art and culture for much of her life, Lori focuses her efforts on reconnecting Native communities to their cultural assets and bringing new philanthropic resources to Native artists and culture bearers directly. Lori is a 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow. She received the 2013 Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Creativity in Rural Life and the Center for Social Innovation Fellowship at Stanford School of Business. She has served on the boards of Grantmakers in the Arts and Native Americans in Philanthropy and was recently named one of four Native women leading change in Native communities by the Johnson Scholarship Foundation. The foundation noted that Lori is "a leader in the field, not just for arts and culture, but for arts and culture period. She is the go-to person for the creative economy across Indian Country. Lori is currently a member of the Women’s Building Advisory Circle, an initiative of the NoVo Foundation. She is a Core Partner with Arts in a Changing America, and serves as one of the core partner leaders for the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI), a collaboration between First Peoples Fund, Alternate ROOTS, the PA’I Foundation and National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. Lori holds an MS from Southern New Hampshire University’s School of Business. She lives in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Monique Pascual
Director of Apprenticeship & Instructional Service Agreements at City College of San Francisco
Orrian Willis
Sr. Workforce Development Specialist at City of San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development

Lauren Jackman
Director, Inclusion Practice and Employee Relations at Medallia
Lauren Jackman is the Director of Medallia’s global Inclusion, Diversity, and Employee Relations Practices. Lauren brings a unique blend of academic and business insights to the table, having earned a PhD in Social Psychology from Stanford and helped to scale Medallia’s culture as we’ve grown from 300 to 1300 employees globally. At Stanford, Lauren conducted research on moral decision making and emotions, mindsets about gender roles, and how cultural context can shape behavioral preferences. Her research has been published in leading academic journals. Lauren founded Medallia’s Inclusion Practice in 2016. She brings an evidence based, data-driven approach to creating an inclusive culture, and applies learnings from social science to creating a more productive, more engaged workforce. Recently, Lauren’s role has expanded to include Medallia’s global Employee Relations Practice, where she provides consultation on workforce policies and facilitates resolution strategies for concerns raised by employees.

Elizabeth Ames
Volunteer Leader at Time's Up Tech
Elizabeth is currently a volunteer leader at Time’s Up Tech. She was previously a senior executive at AnitaB.org where she led their programs to help organizations increase the participation of women of all kinds. She also led development of AnitaB.org’s global communities. Prior to AnitaB.org, she held management positions in marketing and strategy at Apple, Verifone, Netcentives, Vontu, and a variety of other innovative start-up companies. Elizabeth received her BFA from the Hartford Art School and her MBA from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University.

Vikrum Aiyer
Vice President of Global Public Policy & Strategic Communications at Postmates
Vikrum Aiyer is the Vice President of Global Public Policy & Strategic Communications for the on-demand technology platform, Postmates. As Postmates creates new opportunities for brick & mortar businesses to distribute their products in the era of e-commerce, it is also shaping the way independent workers and automation is shaping the labor market. Aiyer leads the legislative and regulatory policy discussions at the federal, state, and local levels which impacts the Future of Work in the gig-economy. In this role, he also oversees the company's social impact & corporate social responsibility arm, Postmates Civic Labs. Previously, Aiyer was as a senior official in the Obama Administration serving as Senior Advisor in The White House for innovation & manufacturing policy, and as the the Chief of Staff to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. Aiyer currently lives in San Francisco, California where he serves as a Term Member for the Council on Foreign Relations; a co-chair for the US Chamber of Commerce New Economy Working Group; an executive board member of the Bay Area Council; a co-chair for business council for the U.S. Conference of Mayors; and the new leaders council of the San Francisco Symphony.

Stephanie Lampkin
Founder & CEO at Blendoor
Stephanie Lampkin, TEDx speaker and former downhill ski racer, has graced the cover of The Atlantic, Fortune 40 under 40, MIT Tech Review 35 under 35 and Forbes to name a few. She is the founder & CEO of Blendoor, enterprise software that mitigates unconscious bias in hiring. Stephanie has had a 15 year career in the tech industry founding two startups and working in technical roles at Lockheed, Microsoft, and TripAdvisor. Stephanie holds a BS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from MIT. Born in SE Washington, DC to a homeless single mother that battled a drug addiction, Stephanie has seen the world through many lenses and experienced being over-marginalized and underestimated. These experiences have given her insights that she now uses to promote technology that levels playing fields and helps us see people better.

Carolyn McGourty Supple
Co-Founder, Chair at The Press Forward (TIME'S UP Press)
Carolyn McGourty Supple is Chair and Co-Founder of Press Forward, a new initiative that arose from the #metoo movement dedicated to helping journalists deliver news effectively to the public by creating safe work environments, fostering ethical leadership and elevating women in the workplace. Working with newsrooms across the nation, Press Forward is partnering with the Poynter Institute to innovate sexual harassment training, conducting a groundbreaking study about women in the American news industry with a national consulting firm and producing dialogues and thought leadership with the next generation of journalists. Press Forward is also the TIME’S UP partner to the press, committed to supporting the Legal Defense Fund so that the most vulnerable in the industry are protected from discrimination and harassment. Carolyn began her career as a journalist at ABC News, where she was an associate producer for the first national newscast on energy and the environment, “Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff.” She also worked on ABC’s flagship evening broadcast, “World News with Charles Gibson,” “Weekend Good Morning America,” and “The Barbara Walters Specials.” A former intern for “20/20” and “Primetime,” she also contributed to Engineering News Record. Currently, she also serves as an as experienced management consultant and technology strategist with Booz Allen Hamilton’s Solutions Studio in the Strategic Innovation Group based in San Francisco, where she advises leaders across sectors on tech scouting, strategic planning, data science, digital strategy and transformation. An innovative and cross-functional professional, she has written the strategic plans for a national performing arts center, piloted data science applications and developed the business strategy for an open source software solution. Carolyn has a B.S. from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo and a Master in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where she was a student fellow for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Chris Brooks
Associate Dean for Academic Operations at University of San Francisco
Chris is Associate Dean for Academic Operations and Professor of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco. He is also leading the development of USF's new School of Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Michigan. He also holds an M.S. in Computer Science from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. and J.B.A. in English and Journalism, respectively, from the University of Wisconsin. His research interests are in the union of the sets of Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Systems, looking at how people and machines can share information and learn from each other. He's also very interested in using technology to address problems related to social justice, and has led service projects in San Francisco and Peru that work to address issues around digital access and inclusion.

Tiffany Yu
CEO, Founder at Diversability
Tiffany Yu is the CEO & Founder of Diversability, an award-winning social enterprise to rebrand disability through the power of community and the Founder of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, a monthly micro-grant for disability projects that has funded $19.5k to 20 projects in 5 countries. She also serves on the Leadership Committee to create the first disability cultural center in San Francisco. Tiffany started her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs, working on over $14 billion of announced transactions. She has also worked at a venture-backed real estate startup, Sean Diddy Combs's REVOLT TV, and Bloomberg. Named one of the “100 most influential Asian Americans of 2017”, a "change maker to watch", and one of "100 visionary leaders", Tiffany has been featured in Marie Claire, the Guardian, and Forbes. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and is currently pursuing her Executive Master's degree at the London School of Economics.

Sunday Parker
Accessibility Evangelist at Salesforce
Sunday Parker is an Accessibility Evangelist at Salesforce passionately working on training and outreach for product accessibility. As the Global Vice President of Abilityforce, their internal Employee Resource Group for People with Disabilities, she advises across the company to better accessibility within their products, internal tools, events, and real-estate properties. She’s also a daily BART commuter sharing her experience publically on Twitter as a passenger in a wheelchair to raise awareness for improved access for people with disabilities on public transportation.

Eden Kfir
Co-Founder & CPO at Fido Solutions
Eden Kfir is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Fido Solutions, a digital microcredit provider in emerging markets using alternative credit risk analysis to increase financial inclusion in emerging markets. Initially launched in Ghana, Fido is now expanding to new markets worldwide to provide access to credit for millions of consumers and micro-entrepreneurs. Prior to Fido, Eden was an impact investor with Acumen Fund in Nairobi, Kenya, sourcing early-stage investments in clean energy and water/sanitation in East Africa. Eden began her career at Citigroup in San Francisco, California specializing in renewable energy finance.

Albrey Bristo-Brown
Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager at Pivotal
Albrey is a former software engineer turned D&I strategist at Pivotal. His journey into D&I is far from linear - after spending 6 months building software he made it his mission to train other underrepresented folks break into tech. Since then his mission as pivoted to making organizations more inclusive for URM's. At Pivotal he works to build and scale programs that impact 2500 employees in over 30 locations.

Christie Pitts
Partner at Backstage Capital
Christie is Partner + Chief of Staff of Backstage Capital. She is responsible for guiding our Crew to ensure Backstage runs smoothly towards its mission as well as joining Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton, in making investment decisions. Christie has extensive experience creating valuable partnerships between startups and Fortune 500 top 20 corporations, and joins Backstage from her role as Venture Development Manager at Verizon Ventures. Christie holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Jose State University, and an MBA from University of Phoenix.

Brittney Riley
Co-Founder at Female Founder School
Brittney’s career has centered around growing, investing, and supporting early-stage startups. Brittney is a co-founder of Female Founder School, a community that supports founders from the earliest stages of their journey. She also works on the direct investment team at Pivotal Ventures, a fund under Melinda Gates. Previously, she was the Vice President of US Ventures at Village Capital and lead growth from pre-launch at two startups, Snapguide and Zipongo. Her experience in fintech, specifically, started when investing for Village Capital in India, and focusing on solutions for last mile populations. She then oversaw five Fintech accelerators in the US, where she worked with 60+ companies and partnered with corporate partners such as Paypal. She has also personally invested as an angel in the Fintech space.

Mimi Fox Melton
Senior Director, Programs at Code2040
As a first generation Haitian-American, Mimi’s passion lives at the intersection of Black and Brown liberation and empowerment. In her role at CODE2040, she designs experiences to build and strengthen community while resourcing and connecting agents of equity and inclusion within the Black and Latinx tech community. Before CODE2040, Mimi co-founded and ran Code for Progress, a non-profit coding bootcamp that pays adults of color as they learn to code and start careers in social justice tech. Mimi grew up in New York, and is a recent transplant to the Bay Area by way of Washington DC. She loves being in the woods, making things by hand, and eating.

Chloe Alpert
CEO at Medinas Health
An entrepreneur from a young age, Chloe has been involved in transforming ideas and prototypes into high-valued companies through product innovation and effective business development. She has founded two profitable companies in the consumer and financial technology spaces including Happy Pay, Inc., won the Forbes 30 under 30 Change the World Competition in 2017 as well as the San Francisco Wework Creator Awards in 2018. She has served an advisor and consultant to multiple notable startups, FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 corporations. She is currently the founder & CEO of Medinas Health, a platform to help OEMs and Hospitals buy and sell excess medicinal equipment and supplies and optimize clinical asset disposition and trade in programs.

Morgan Gore
Product Design Manager at Yelp
Morgan Gore is a Product Design Manager at Yelp, growing the Marketplace design team that connects millions of users to great local businesses through user-centered and data-driven design. Morgan is focussed on all things process, reducing operational inefficiencies and advocating for design systems. She proactively works with design and recruiting partners to iterate on more structured interviews and diversifying the hiring panels. Previously, Morgan worked as the Senior Product Design Manager at Grove Collaborative, where she founded the UX Research team and shaped the end-to-end product development process, creating effective workflows between Product Design, Research and Engineering in a continuous deployment environment. Prior to joining Grove, Morgan was a Product Design Manager at Educents, an EdTech marketplace platform, where she became interested in the role of marketplaces to foster connection between communities. At Educents, she spearheaded the UX Research practice and worked on product search, seller tools and design systems.

Xaiver Cunningham
Product Operations Manager at LinkedIn
Xavier is a sales professional turned product manager with over 10 years of experience in the Tech space. After spending almost 9 years at Apple Inc, he recently joined LinkedIn’s Global Customer Operations team to focus on product enhancements for LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions. Outside of tech, Xavier’s focus is dedicated to curating experiences where individuals can develop their personal and professional brand through their style.

Jared Wiener
Technology Industry Liaison at Prosper Portland
Jared’s professional career has been defined by deep analytical thinking and dynamic leadership to unite parties around a shared vision and outcomes that are mutually beneficial. Jared has spent the last seven years working at Prosper Portland, the economic development agency for Portland, Oregon. He’s spent that time working with leaders in Portland Tech to achieve results on the thorniest issues in the industry. Jared has helped the industry converge on the central city, double in size, and make a meaningful and collective commitment to increase workforce diversity and workplace inclusion to make our industry more equitable through TechTown Portland. Previous career stops include economic analysis, banking, and political campaigns. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and two-year-old daughter enjoying much of the biking, hiking, beer, and culture the city has to offer.

Chris McLemore
Program Manager of Oakland Startup Network at Kapor Center
Chris McLemore is the Oakland Startup Network Program Manager at the Kapor Center for Social Impact. His focus is to build community and both identify & assess early stage tech startups from idea to pre-seed. Prior to joining Kapor Center, Chris spent a few years working in Finance and Product for companies like Nestlé and Gap, while also bootstrapping a startup of his own. In 2017, Chris helped launch the Kapor Center Innovation Lab and now serves as an advisor. Chris also is an experienced entrepreneur and an advocate for the Black & Brown tech community by helping disrupt bias throughout the tech ecosystem.

Late'jah Whittaker
Student at Kapor Center
Late'jah Whittaker is a sophomore at California State University, Northridge, majoring in Computer Science. She plans to pursue her PhD in Computer Science so that once she has achieved her goals in the industry, she can become a professor, specifically one in an entry-level CS class in order to act as a mentor to students just entering the major She is also passionate about social justice issues and mental health awareness, and hopes to be able to tie in her love for technology with these topics.

Tina Sandford
Head of HR Ops, Policy & Projects at Silicon Valley Bank
Tina Sandford is the Head of HR Operations, Policy & Projects and a member of Silicon Valley Bank’s human resources leadership team. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is the premier financial partner to technology, life sciences, venture capital, private equity and premium wine businesses. SVB has $45 billion in assets, and more than 2,500 employees in over 30 locations worldwide. Tina leads a team of HR professionals to develop and execute people strategies that support business objectives and optimize the talent and culture at SVB. Over the past 11 years, she has led project teams related to SVB’s employee engagement survey, global expansion, optimization of HR technology, people analytics and employment policy and practices. Tina is the Project Lead for SVB’s inclusion and diversity efforts where she partners with the Inclusion and Diversity Steering Committee to create SVB’s I&D strategy. Prior to joining SVB, Tina held numerous management positions in human resources leading teams in the area of recruitment and selection, benefits administration, and talent development. She has worked in the software and semiconductor industries such as PeopleSoft, KLA-Tencor and Cadence Design Systems. Tina earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology from California State University, East Bay, a master’s degree in human resources management from Golden Gate University and additional course work in leadership and strategic impact through Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth.

Lindsey Siegel
Sr. Program Manager, Learning and Development at Pivotal
Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I found diversity and disruptive innovation to entertain my worldview. I have incorporated my passion for connection, civic engagement, and community with Pivotal, a company that is transforming how the world builds software. With experience in partnering with early-stage startups to a Fortune 500 company, I examine culture.

Gabriel Ramos
Engineering Director at Yelp
Gabriel Ramos is Corporate Engineering Director at Yelp. Previously he was Manager of Corporate Infrastructure at Uber and held a similar role at Zynga. Prior to that he was a Senior Engineer at Zynga and Silver Spring Networks. Much of his work has been helping high growth companies scale and mature their corporate technology services. Gabe is also passionate about building inclusive teams and a culture where everyone is welcome to be themselves.

Komal Ahmad
Founder, CEO at Go Copia, PBC
Komal Ahmad, founder and CEO of Copia, is solving the World’s Dumbest Problem by ending hunger and reducing food waste globally. Under her leadership, Copia has recovered over 1,000,000 pounds of food and will feed 2 million people this year with high-quality food that would have otherwise been wasted. Her company has managed food recovery from high profile events including Super Bowl 50 and the Oscars. Most recently, Copia served food to victims and first responders of the California wildfires. Copia has been named as one of the top 3 women-led startups in America and one of the top 8 startups graduating from Y Combinator. Komal graduated from UC Berkeley with honors and was recently awarded the University of California’s Global Food Changemaker, 2016 Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Outside Magazine's “30 Under 30”, and a 2017 MIT Solver. She was also named by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business and by Toyota as Toyota’s Mother of Invention. She has been highlighted by Marie Claire as one of the most powerful and impactful women in business and was recently honored with the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award.

Lakeisha Poole
CEO, Founder at Talent Karma
Lakeisha Poole is an entrepreneur, workplace futurist, and community builder. Her company Talent Karma focuses on helping companies create inclusive work environments that naturally attract and retain talent while reducing long-term risk. An employment lawyer for 11 years, Lakeisha is passionate about making ethics and inclusion-focused leadership practical and tactical.

Aloka Penmetcha
Director, Product Management at Pivotal
Aloka coaches (by pairing) Agile/XP and lean philosophies. She helps organizations leverage technology solutions to power business innovation - solutions that bring about change. Aloka has played the roles of developer, quality analyst and product manager during her career and has evolved a holistic thinking to building products and businesses. She gets a kick out of finding elegant solutions for complex problems. Aloka holds a MBA, Masters and Bachelors degree in Computer Science. She has consulted for Fortune 100 companies and startups in a range of industries including retail, finance, education and real estate.

Jeana Alayaay
Director, Internal Products and Services at Pivotal
Jeana Alayaay is the director of Pivotal Software’s Internal Products and Services group. She also serves on Pivotal’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. Jeana is a Product Manager by craft and was an early proponent of the Balanced Team and Lean management philosophies. As a person who’s building her career in the tech industry and who identifies as a member of an underrepresented group in that ecosystem, Jeana believes it’s her responsibility to do what she can to evolve the environment to be more diverse and inclusive for herself and for others who will join the ranks in the future. Jeana is a Bay Area native and enjoys hiking with her dog, playing board games, and traveling in her free time.

Anndrea Moore
CEO at Black Tech Women
Anndrea Moore is the Founder and CEO of Black Tech Women, the premier organization for black women in the technology ecosystem. Black Tech Women has grown to 3000+ members and has executed experiences with Google, Instagram, Tech Inclusion, SoundCloud and more. The Harvard Business School graduate created Black Tech Women based on her own experiences as a black woman working at some of the most well known tech companies in the world, including Facebook, Apple, and Google. From consulting small and medium businesses on digital marketing strategy to launching global product features impacting millions of users, Anndrea has a range of expertise as it relates to marketing and product growth, including digital marketing, product storytelling, email engagement, and customer journey optimization.

Enhao Li
Co-Founder at Female Founder School
Enhao Li is the co-founder of Female Founder School which provides aspiring and early-stage founders with the skills, tools, and community to validate ideas and build the foundation for successful companies. A former investment banker for Morgan Stanley’s technology group (she took Pandora public and managed IPOs and M&A for fast-growth tech startups), Enhao also has created mentorship programs for women and professionals of color in tech and politics. It was during her work on mentorship in tech that she realized true inclusion must start from the top and from founding teams, which is why she has dedicated her to time to empowering female founders.

Cynthia Overton
Founder at Inclusion Clearinghouse
Cynthia Overton is founder of InclusionClearinghouse.org, an online repository of resources that advance diversity and inclusion throughout the tech ecosystem. She is also a principal research analyst for a behavioral and social science research firm, where she has spent the past 13 years leading projects that enhance opportunities for underrepresented populations. Cynthia has expertise in disability policy and accessible technology that can be enjoyed by people with disabilities and aging populations. In 2016, she was selected to lead the research team for the congressionally mandated National Council on Disability Annual Progress Report to the White House and Congress that focused on technology, policy, and disability. A proud HBCU graduate, Cynthia earned a BA from Hampton University. She also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in educational technology with a concentration in accessible technology, and a masters in PR/corporate communications from Georgetown University.

Amanda Gelender
Founder, CEO at Medusa Global
Amanda Gelender is the Founder & CEO of Medusa Global. Through her consulting, she travels globally working with tech companies on mental health and organizational culture. With Medusa Amsterdam, she facilitates legal, transformational psychedelic sessions for tech leaders. Amanda previously worked for Vaya Consulting and led flagship social impact programs at GitHub. She is an alumna of Stanford University where she graduated with honors and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. She can be reached at

Catalin Wong
Marketing Coordinator at AWS Elemental
Catalin Wong, Marketing Coordinator at AWS Elemental

Suzanne Barakat, MD
Board Chair at Our Three Winners Foundation
Suzanne was born and raised in North Carolina, and attended UNC Chapel Hill for undergrad and medical school. She completed her residency training in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at UCSF San Francisco General Hospital. Prior to residency, Suzanne worked at a makeshift polyclinic serving 20,000 refugees along the Turkey-Syria border. She also conducted research on gestational diabetes and postpartum mental health outcomes in low-income Latina women, and translated an online mood screener into Arabic, the results of which contributed to a first-of-its-kind mental health assessment of Arabic-speaking communities worldwide. She is passionate about women’s health, mental health, global health, and social justice. She currently works as a hospitalist, laborist, and outpatient clinic provider in Oakland, CA. In 2015, Suzanne’s youngest brother Deah, his wife Yusor, and Yusor’s sister Razan, were murdered execution-style in their Chapel Hill apartment, in a hate crime committed by a neighbor who’d professed to disliking the way they looked. In the wake of her family’s tragedy, Suzanne has become a prominent voice against the rising tide of Islamophobia. Suzanne currently serves as Board Chair of Our Three Winners Foundation.

Lauren Espinosa
Manager, Talent Acquisition at Jama Software
I have spent the last 3 years Managing Talent Acquisition for Jama Software and have 10+ years recruiting Tech and Non-tech roles in the Portland Metro area. Throughout my recruiting career, hiring for diversity and supporting an inclusive/equitable work environment has always been a priority and passion.

Tammy Cho
Co-Founder, CEO at BetterBrave
Tammy Cho is co-founder and CEO of BetterBrave, a nonprofit employees can safely turn to when they experience or witness workplace harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. BetterBrave is recognized as a trusted resource by global movements like TIME'S UP and by national outlets including Mashable, HuffPost, Fortune, and Forbes. Learn more at http://betterbrave.org. Previously, Tammy co-founded and led product and design at Encore Alert (acquired by Meltwater in 2016), an AI platform that helped digital marketers at brands like IDEO, Denver Broncos, and the University of Michigan identify and act on emerging trends, crises, and influencers in their industry. She participated in 500 Startups, one of the top accelerator programs in the world, as the youngest founding member of the batch. Tammy has also been recognized as Georgetown Entrepreneur of the Year, Hubspot Inbound's 22 Under 22, and a Power Woman in DC Tech. Her work has also been featured in Entrepreneur, Digiday, Bloomberg, and the Washington Post.

Lewis Hower
Managing Director at Silicon Valley Bank
Lewis Hower, managing director of Early Stage Practice in the San Francisco office, has pulled up a seat on both sides of the negotiating table — as a founder as well as an investor — and he’s played just about every other role in between. In fact, he’s reached across the table to manage investments on every continent in the world except Antarctica. Lewis earned a degree in engineering with a focus on biomedical research and small business development from Arizona State University. After a short stint as a research associate, he moved into international investing as director of New Venture Development with Unitus Investment Group, an international microfinance company. In 2010, he co-founded Sorenson Impact, an industry first “think-and-do tank” in collaboration with The Sorenson Group Companies and the University of Utah. From there, he cofounded San Francisco–based Community Investment Management LLC, a private credit investment firm focused on responsible small business lending. He went on to serve as chief product officer for Village Capital and as a senior strategic consultant to Nike. Along the way, he also poured his time and talents into directorships for Bay Area community universities and charitable organizations.

KR Liu
Board Member at Consumer Technology Association Foundation
Diagnosed with severe hearing loss at the age of three, KR has spent the last two decades as technology marketing executive and a strong advocate and voice championing accessibility in technology and corporate culture. KR spent the last two years and a half years collaborating with Senator Warren’s team on new legislation called the OTC Hearing Aid Act of 2017, which was signed into law on Aug, 18th 2017. These days, she is a full-time advocate and speaker, with a rising reputation in technology, regulatory and diversity management circles. In 2018 she’s spoke at CES, SXSW, Ellevate Network: Mobilize Women, and several major companies like Uber, Salesforce, Oath, Cisco, and Capital One about how to be inclusive of the disability communities in product design and culture. KR is currently advising with industry organizations that are working toward accessibility innovation in technology and inclusion for people with disabilities. KR is on the board of the Hearing Loss Association of America, Deaf Kids Code, the Consumer Technology Association Foundation, and World Wide Hearing Foundation International. She has been awarded a U.S. Congressional award; Silicon Valley's Top 40 Under 40 and 2017 Women of Influence; and 2015 Women on the Move by Women's Business Journal for her advocacy work in hearing health and technology. She has been invited to speak on hearing health at the White House, The UN, and on Capitol Hill to push for more accessibility and innovation in hearing technology. She has been featured in NPR, CBS This Morning, Fast Company, Business Insider, Tech Crunch and many more for her work in hearing accessibility and equality. List honors, awards or recognitions o United States Congress Special Recognition Award (August 2015) o Silicon Valley Business Journal - 2015 Top 40 Under 40 (June 2015) o The Business Journal - Women On The Move (May 2015) o Silicon Valley Business Journal - 2017 Women of Influence (April 2017) o Champion of Disability Inclusion – Oath (May 2018)

Molly Q. Ford
Director of Global Equality Programs at Salesforce
Molly Q. Ford is the Director of Global Equality Programs at Salesforce, the World’s Most Innovative Company according to Forbes and one of Fortune’s Best Companies to Work for nine years in a row. In this role, she is responsible for shaping and sharing the company’s core value of Equality and evangelizing the Salesforce culture. At Salesforce, we are working together with our entire Ohana — our employees, customers, partners, community organizations and the tech industry — to build a path forward to Equality for all. We are taking action across four key pillars: Equal Pay, Equal Education, Equal Rights and Equal Opportunity. Achieving our vision of Equality for all is going to be a long journey, and ultimately, we'll reach success by many steps along the way. The trail starts with transparency, education, inclusive dialogue, quick action, community building, and an unbreakable commitment to making the world a better place. Molly is responsible for founding the inaugural Dreamforce Women's Summit which took place in 2015 and has evolved into the Dreamforce Equality Summit. Hosting keynotes from trailblazers such as Billie Jean King, Bernard J. Tyson, and Natalie Portman, and Taraji P. Henson the Equality summit aims to showcase the voices of diverse thought leaders on one of the largest stages at Dreamforce. Prior to making her passion for Equality a full-time job, Molly worked on the award-winning Salesforce Public Relations team. With more than 15 years of Public Relations experience, she was responsible for building awareness for Salesforce Service Cloud, the world’s #1 customer service and support solution. Prior to joining Salesforce, she held positions at major technology companies including Cisco, Check Point Software, IBM and UMAX. Molly holds a B.S. in Public Relations from San Jose State University.

April Fenall
CEO, Founder at Piikup
April Fenall holds a B.A. in Intercultural Communication from California State University, Sacramento. April brings over 15 years of consumer facing marketing and communications experience. She is CEO and Founder at Piikup, one of the only socially responsible delivery hubs supporting food and retail businesses in the Bay Area. In addition, she is a mentor with Uptima Business Bootcamp Accelerator and an instructor at the David Glover Technology center in Oakland, CA. April is a Bay Area native from Richmond California.

Cynthia Yeung
COO at Cafe X
Cynthia Yeung is the COO of Cafe X, which delivers a superior customer experience that will set the standard for human-robot collaboration in hospitality, one cup of coffee at a time. Her previous roles have taken her around the world: leading next-gen product for SoftBank Robotics; leading platform for CheckMate, a hospitality SaaS startup that was acquired in 2016; sailing on a ship to 13 countries to launch a social enterprise startup accelerator whose mentors included the Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Google VP/White House CTO Megan Smith; and leading product partnerships for various Google Maps and Google [x] initiatives. Cynthia graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Management and Technology program with degrees from both the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a Joseph Wharton Scholar.

Ajene Green
Director, Business Development
Ajene Green leads business development and retail sales at Walker & Company Brands, and is responsible for developing and growing partnerships with retailers such as Target, Amazon and Sephora. Prior to joining Walker & Company, Ajene was a sales lead at Spongecell Inc. an award winning creative technology company focused on making data-driven creative simple by integrating data, machine learning and automation into the digital advertising process. At Spongecell, Ajene drove platform sales with both agency and brand clients including JetBlue, Citi, Capital One, L'Oreal, Razorfish, Mullen and Horizon Media. Prior to his time at Spongecell, Ajene worked for L'Oreal in their Professional Products Division, spending time in both sales and marketing roles for the Kerastase and Redken brands. Ajene holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Columbia University and currently lives in Oakland, CA.

Brooklyn Wright
Founder, CEO at Boi Society

Maria Salamanca
Investor at Unshackled Ventures
Maria Salamanca is a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures, activist leader and advisor at Swing Left, and fellow at Higher Ground Labs. Unshackled Ventures, a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding teams with immigrant founders at the earliest stage of pre-seed. Maria joined the fund three years ago and has been involved in all 22 investments and has evaluated more than 2,500 deals. Maria is not only a leader but key figure in the pre-seed investment community, supporting underrepresented founders just like herself. In 2018, she was first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars. She is deeply involved in supporting the Latino entrepreneurship ecosystem, including being on the committee for the first-ever StartupWeekend: Latinx Tech Edition and creating the first list and group of Latinas in Venture Capital. It is this strong support and investment in her community that won her the 2017 California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Shark of Year. Previous to joining Unshackled, Maria worked at FWD.us an immigration lobbying group founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman and other tech leaders.

Adrian Nam
Product Marketing and Partnerships, Team Lead at Pandora
Adrian has led Product Marketing and Partnerships at Pandora, Facebook, and Visa. At Pandora, Adrian currently leads the team responsible for Pandora’s applications on Smart Speakers, Smart TV's, Smart Displays, Voice Assistants, Wearables, and Gaming Consoles. At Facebook, Adrian launched and scaled Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Shops.

Wayne Sutton
Co-Founder, CTO At Change Catalyst
Wayne Sutton is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Change Catalyst and its Tech Inclusion programs. Change Catalyst is dedicated to exploring innovative solutions to diversity and inclusion in tech through the Tech Inclusion Conference, training, workshops and the Change Catalyst Startup Fellows Program. Sutton’s experience includes years of establishing partnerships with large brands to early stage startups. As a leading voice in diversity and inclusion in tech, Sutton shares his thoughts on solutions and culture in various media outlets where he has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. In addition to mentoring and advising early stage startups, Sutton’s life goal is to educate entrepreneurs who are passionate about using technology to change the world. Wayne has over 14 years experience in technology, design and business development. Wayne has been recognized as one of the Silicon Valley 100 coolest people in tech, one of the 52 hottest new stars in Silicon Valley, one of the 46 Most Important African-Americans In Technology by Business Insider and one of the Top 100 most influential black people on social media in 2014. In 2014 Wayne co-founded BUILDUP, a non-profit designed to support an inclusive ecosystem of entrepreneurs through educational workshops and fellows program for underrepresented tech founders. In 2011, Wayne co-founded the NewMe Accelerator, the first minority led startup accelerator/incubator in Silicon Valley which was featured in CNN Black in America 4. Prior to NewMe he worked in media in Raleigh, NC for NBC17 and the News and Observer. In 2009 Wayne was the co-founder of TriOut, a mobile location-based startup in Raleigh, NC which exited. Wayne has worked with large brands, Inc 500 companies and advises several technology startups. With a passion for community Wayne has organized Social Media Conferences, tech meetups, and hackathons such as the world’s first Food Hackathon, which assembled leading food innovators, chefs, developers, designers and entrepreneurs to collaborate on solutions in the food ecosystem. Wayne has been featured on CNN, BBC, USA Today, TechCrunch, Mashable, Black Enterprise, and various online media outlets. Being an early adopter Wayne was one of the first 1000 users on Twitter which as lead to a loyal following not only on Twitter, but Facebook and Google+. His blog SocialWayne.com has been ranked one of the 50 best technology and social media blogs in the world over the years. Wayne is a past TED attendee in 2012. With a passion for education and storytelling, Wayne has spoken at several universities and major internet and technology focused conferences such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke, UNC, NC State, TEDx, World Wide Web(WWW) Conference, O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo, South By South West (SXSW), DockerCon 2015 and for the U.S. Embassy Jamaica during Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015.

Melinda Briana Epler
Founder, CEO At Change Catalyst
Melinda Briana Epler has more than 25 years of experience elevating brands and developing business innovation and inclusion strategies for startups, tech hubs, social enterprises, Fortune 500 companies and global NGOs. As Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst, Melinda empowers diverse, inclusive and sustainable tech innovation through events, education, mentorship and funding. Through Tech Inclusion, an initiative of Change Catalyst, she partners with the tech community to solve diversity and inclusion together. Her work spans the full tech ecosystem, from Education to Workplace, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Media. Melinda speaks, mentors and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, social entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs and investing. She is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker – her film and television work includes projects that exposed the AIDS crisis in South Africa, explored women’s rights in Turkey, and prepared communities for the effects of climate change. She has worked on several television shows, including NBC’s The West Wing.
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Change Catalyst builds inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programs and resources, and a series of events around the globe.
Using culture and behavior change strategies, we partner with the tech industry to drive solutions to diversity and inclusion together: across education, workplace, entrepreneurship, policy, media/entertainment and ecosystem builders.
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