Founding Women

Today, as many of you know, is International Women’s Day. Here at Code for America there are many impressive women to behold. And I have the privilege of working with them everyday.

So on this day, I want to take a minute and celebrate these six female founders. Alex, Alicia, Caitria, Jen, Michelle, Serena: Thanks for your passion and your contributions to our community.

Alex Pandel

Alex is the co-founder of Civic Industries. She’s a graphic designer, writer, problem-solver, communicator, urban explorer, and internet-lover. Alex thrives on collaboration and lives to craft creative and beautiful solutions to problems big and small. Alex graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Studio Art, since, she’s been designing pretty things on paper and the web, including projects for New York Magazine, Avon, and The Future Project — an organization that seeks to reignite a passion for learning within American public schools. Alex was a 2012 Code for America Fellow. You can find her online here: @alexpandel.

Alicia Rouault

Alicia is the co-founder of Amplify Labs. She’s an urban planner and interactive product manager. Previously, Alicia worked in economic development and urban planning on the development of a national urban manufacturing toolkit for cities. On the East coast, Alicia worked as Assistant Editor of Urban Omnibus, in community development with the City of Newark’s Division of Planning and Economic Development, and with non-profits Pratt Center for Community Development and Citizens Committee for New York City. Alicia has studied at University of Toronto, Pratt Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alicia was a 2012 Code for America Fellow. You can find her online here: @aroulaut.

Caitria O’Neil

Caitria is the co-founder of Recovers. She’s worked for Harvard Law Review and the US State Department, and brings legal, political and editorial experience to the team. When not organizing tornado relief, she spends time leading backpacking trips and reading. She holds an A.B degree in Government from Harvard University and has completed FEMA NIMS 700/800 ICS 100/200. Recovers participated in the inaugural class of the Code for America Accelerator. You can find her online here: @recovers_org.

Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer is the founder of Code for America. Government Technology named her one of 2011’s Doers, Dreamers and Drivers in Public Sector Innovation and the Huffington Post named her the top Game Changer in Business and Technology the same year. She is known for her TED talk, Coding a Better Government, and is a frequent speaker at a wide range of events. She spent eight years at CMP Media where she ran the Game Developers Conference, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com and the Independent Games Festival. Previously, she ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb, in conjunction with O’Reilly Media, and co-chaired the successful Web 2.0 Expo. Jennifer’s early career was spent in the non-profit sector. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, Calif. with her daughter and eight chickens. You can find her online here: @pahlkadot.

Michelle Lee

Michelle is the co-founder of Vox Metropolis. She’s a product designer from Philadelphia and New York City. Michelle has worked at Google since 2005 leading projects to aid in understanding and improving user experiences in Maps, Flu Trends, and Docs. Michelle started Forms under Google’s 20 percent time policy, and it is now the fastest growing form of Google Doc online. Previously, she designed online trust and safety tools for eBay, cars for baby boomers, and studied human-computer interaction at Stanford University’s Symbolic Systems Program. Michelle was a 2012 Code for America Fellow. You can find her online here: @mishmosh.

Serena Wales

Serena is the co-founder of Vox Metropolis. She’s a web developer from New York. Serena has worked at Purpose building campaigning tools and web, applications for nonprofits and corporations. Previously, she worked with museums and nonprofits to bring technology into new areas, developing interactive projects for the High Museum of Art and the Davis Museum. Serena graduated from Wellesley College in 2009, where she majored in Media Arts and Sciences and History. Serena was a 2012 Code for America Fellow. You can find her online here: @gangleton.

Happy International Women’s day to each of you – and all the great women pioneers.

Questions? Comments? Hit us up @codeforamerica.

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