This week, Code to Inspire is so excited to join The Hopper Club. The monthly women’s discussion and empowerment group, hosted by Rubicon Project, has invited Fereshteh to discuss Diversity & Entrepreneurship and her journey.

If you aren’t familiar with Rubicon Project, they’re a leading advertising technology company that engineered one of the largest real-time cloud and Big Data computing systems, processing trillions of transactions within milliseconds each month. They’re often considered the NASDAQ for the advertising industry.

As a leader in technology, Rubicon Project introduced the Hopper Club in New York and Los Angeles to provide training sessions, fireside chats, informal brainstorming sessions, and general conversations about women in the workplace, specifically within the digital ad technology industry.

We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with a likeminded organization committed to closing the gender technology gap!

This Olympics, Afghanistan’s very own Kamia Yousufi competed in women’s 100m track & field. We loved seeing her represent our country on the world stage in Rio, and watch her thrive in track & field in a hijab.

She also was able to win the Afghanistan National Championship although it’s exceedingly rare for Afghan women to have the resources and support to compete at that level. We wanted to take #WCW to honor women the country over who are breaking through stereotypes and showing the world what Afghan women are made of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKxeFt1nnbI

Our very own board member, Elizabeth McCauley, presented our work to GitHub as closing keynote speaker during their Satellite Conference, which was a celebration of the latest and greatest in development. In addition to Code to Inspire, they hosted a number of powerful engineers, founders, and activists who tackle the most difficult challenges in software. We’re so excited to have the opportunity to share our cause with their team, and so enjoyed learning more about other software communities the world over. Thank you again to GitHub for serving as an early corporate donor and helping us get our first class of students started!

Here at Code to Inspire, we need a team that is representative of our school – strong, forwardthinkers who want to make an impact. For that reason, we were thrilled to welcome both  Evanna Hu and Judd Bagley to our Advisory Board.

Evanna, who has vast experience working in the tech industry, will be able to add an unique perspective on the latest industry developments and guide our business. Meanwhile Judd, who is currently the Director of Communications for Overstock.com, will provide strategic counsel to our communications team.

Evanna Hu

Evanna is a technologist, facilitator, and entrepreneur aiming to increase access to information. She specializes in user experience, design, and relations with host countries and relevant actors in volatile contexts, including Kandahar, Afghanistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Syria. Her passions include human rights activism, journalism, education and employment, and countering violent extremism.

Evanna is also a highly-sought after public speaker on the intersection of technology and private-public partnership, youth inclusiveness, and private sector development. In addition, she has acted as a mediator and facilitator for various inter-governmental agencies.

She graduated from the University of Chicago with a dual degree in Political Science and Romance Language and Literature (French). She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey.

Judd Bagely

Judd Bagley is the Director of Communications at Overstock.com where he specializes in communication, presentation development, speechwriting, and earned media. A former journalist and life-long technologist, Judd joined the team of Overstock.com in 2006 bringing an arsenal of creative and technical skills to the role. Prior to Overstock.com, he served as the Director of Public Relations for Summit Group. Judd’s deep understanding of technology and its vast potential continues to present new and exciting avenues full of growth and discovery. In 2016, Judd and his team at Overstock.com donated laptops to Code to Inspire and ultimately joined the advisory board.Judd graduated with honors from Florida State University with  a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish. He currently resides in Salt Lake City, and loves to travel. You can follow his adventures on Twitter:  twitter.com/writerjudd

Want to get involved? Find out more at codetoinspire.org/donate

– Rebecca Dubow