We are so pleased to introduce you to our inaugural advisory committee, each of them thought leaders and notable for both their level of achievement and the ways they contribute back to their respective communities.
Brandi Riley: Hailing from Oakland, California, Brandi is a writer with a focus on tech, wellness, and personal development. Originally launching her blog MamaKnowsItAll in 2010 to provide down-to-earth parenting advice, Brandi has since contributed hundreds of articles about motherhood to outlets like BabyCenter, Parents.com, Scary Mommy, and Essence. Over the last few years, Brandi has expanded her focus to include equity and innovation in the tech industry. Connecting her writing expertise and interest in AI and machine learning, she now crafts thoughtful policies and processes to ensure technology reflects the diversity of its users. Most recently, Brandi’s attention has turned to the intersection of tech and wellness, especially meditation and mindfulness. Having experienced firsthand the pressures facing modern working women, she now strives to promote real techniques to help women show up in the way that serves them best both at home and on the job. When she isn't writing or advocating for mindful tech, Brandi is hanging out with her husband Terrence and their two kids in Oakland.
Brian Solis: Brian is a world-renowned futurist, digital anthropologist, 8x best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. Brian also serves as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow. He has consistently been recognized as one of the world's leading thinkers in innovation, business transformation, and emergent leadership for over two decades. Forbes has called him “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time,” ZDNet said that Brian is “one of the 21st century business world’s leading thinkers,” and The Conference Board described Brian as "the futurist we all need now."
Carla Hall: Carla first won over audiences when she competed on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars” and shared her philosophy to always cook with love. She is a trained chef who has worked in several professional restaurant kitchens in and around the Washington, D.C. area and believes food connects us all, a belief she strives to convey through her work, her cooking, and in her daily interactions with others. Carla spent 7 years co-hosting ABC’s Emmy award winning, popular lifestyle series “The Chew”, and is currently featured on the Food Network as a judge on competition shows such as “Summer, Thanksgiving, Holiday and Halloween Baking Championships”. Her latest cookbook, Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration, was published in 2018, landing on annual "Best Cookbook" lists across the country and receiving an NAACP Image Awards nomination. Hall has also published a children’s book, Carla and the Christmas Cornbread (2021), a heartwarming tale loosely based on Hall’s childhood growing up in Nashville, TN.
Christina Wallace: A self-described “human Venn diagram”, Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is currently a Senior Lecturer of entrepreneurship Harvard Business School, an active angel investor, and a co-producer of Broadway musicals. Her latest book is The Portfolio Life: How to Future-Proof Your Career, Avoid Burnout, and Build A Life Bigger Than Your Business Card (Hachette, 2023). A serial entrepreneur, Christina has built businesses in ecommerce, edtech, and media. She also co-authored New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (Penguin Random House, 2019) and was the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, an iHeart podcast with millions of downloads over 3 seasons and 125 episodes. In her free time, she sings with various chamber choirs, embarks on adventure travel, and is a mediocre endurance athlete. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children.
Guy Kawasaki: Guy is the chief evangelist of Canva and the creator of Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People podcast. He is an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley), and adjunct professor of the University of New South Wales. He was the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. He has written Wise Guy, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, and eleven other books. His latest book Think Remarkable is available for pre-order now. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University, an MBA from UCLA, and an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
James Oliver, Jr.: James is a 3X founder and CEO of Kabila, a co-founder matching app focused on inclusion, and founder of the ParentPreneur Foundation, which empowers Black ParentPreneurs, so they can leave a legacy for their beautiful Black children.
John Gerzema: John Gerzema is a New York Times Bestselling Author and pioneer in the use of data to identify social change and help companies anticipate and adapt to new trends and demands. An author, strategist, speaker, consultant, Fellow with The Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard, and an advocate for women and girls, John’s latest book with Pulitzer-Prize winner Michael D’Antonio–––The Athena Doctrine, explores the rise of feminine values on leadership, policy and innovation.
Kimberly Bryant: Kimberly is a renowned technology industry leader, visionary and founder of ASCEND Ventures and the Black Innovation Lab. As the CEO of ASCEND Ventures, Kimberly is committed to creating opportunities for marginalized founders building impact-driven companies particularly in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. With her flagship Black Innovation Lab, she cultivates and invests in a pipeline of leaders who use technology to make a societal impact while creating pathways to equity and generational wealth through entrepreneurship and ownership. Before ASCEND Ventures, Kimberly founded Black Girls CODE, a social-change organization aimed at introducing girls of color aged 6-18 to technology and computer science, with a focus on entrepreneurship. Under her leadership, Black Girls CODE grew from a grassroots initiative to an international organization with chapters across the U.S. and South Africa and more than 100,000 students. Kimberly is dedicated to changing the face of technology by investing in opportunities for women, girls and all, using technology as a lever for progress.
Lauren Goveo: Lauren currently serves as the Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Childhelp, a national nonprofit dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse. She cut her teeth in digital marketing in the digital publishing and adtech spaces with a combined tenure of a decade, leveraging digital marketing tactics and techniques to increase awareness and revenue for these organizations. She resides in Phoenix, AZ with her husband and their 2 children and rescue dog.
Lori Nishiura Mackenzie: Lori is a speaker, researcher and change agent in diversity, equity and inclusion. She is co-founder of the Stanford VMware Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, which creates impact research to understand the barriers to women’s advancement in order to build more inclusive workplaces. She is working with the California Partners Project, a non-profit co-founded by California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, to create tools for boards to recruit to increase diversity and foster inclusive cultures. Lori has been recognized as a 2022 LinkedIn Top Voice in Gender Equity, a BBC’s 100 Women in 2017, and in the award-winning documentary, bias, which premiered in 2018. Her work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Inc., Fast Company and the Lily. In 2020, Lori was awarded the CEDAW* Human Rights Award, Education, from the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women. Lori brings 20 years of marketing strategy and business management experience at companies including Procter & Gamble, Apple, eBay and PayPal. She is a board member of the Alliance for Girls and the Center for Institutional Courage, and an advisor to August Public. Lori has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Marnie Webb: Marnie is the Chief Community Impact Officer for TechSoup and leads Caravan Studios, a division of TechSoup. In her role, she works with communities around the world to describe desired impact and to develop technology solutions that help them move towards that impact. Her work is influenced by human centered design principles, as well as methodologies from social work and international development, such as Participatory Action Research. She has been working with civil society, governments, academia, and corporations for more than 30 years to put together teams and solutions that can accomplish big goals, with and for communities. Marnie serves on the boards of Safe Place International, a non-profit dedicated to the needs of LGBTQI refugees worldwide and Chapter 510, a made-in-Oakland youth writing, bookmaking and publishing center.
Minaa B: Minaa is a licensed social worker, mental health educator, and author of Owning Our Struggles. A former psychotherapist specializing in anxiety, depression, and trauma, Minaa has worked in several mental health industries, including early childhood in NYC Early Head Start Programs, private practice, and community mental health. Minaa is also a wellness coach and the founder of Minaa B. Consulting, a mental health consulting practice that helps organizations develop psychological safety.
Nancy Davis Kho: Nancy is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. She is author of THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time. From 2016 through 2021, Nancy covered “the years between being hip and breaking one” on the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, still available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in Wall Street Journal’s list of “8 podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement.” To learn more and sign up for Nancy's free monthly newsetter, visit daviskho.com
Octavia Goredema: Octavia guides professionals to unleash their full potential in the workplace. Recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Voice in Executive Coaching, Octavia has coached thousands of professionals to achieve their career goals. An acclaimed career expert, Octavia is the host of the Audible Original series, How to Change Careers with Octavia Goredema and the author of PREP, PUSH, PIVOT: Essential Career Strategies for Underrepresented Women, published by Wiley.
Stephanie Agresta: Stephanie is the Founder and Managing Director of Ascendancy Events, LLC. Stephanie has created a winning formula for leveraging events, thought leadership and content partnerships to set the innovator’s agenda and tell broad, impactful stories that drive executive reputation and business objectives. Stephanie has 20+ years of experience working with world-class clients and C-suite executives across industry verticals, including technology, media/advertising, healthcare, retail, consumer goods, and financial services. She previously served in senior executive roles at global agencies, including Real Chemistry, DiGennaro Communications, MSL, Weber Shandwick, and Porter Novelli. An award-winning, integrated marketing and communications professional, Stephanie helped pioneer the field of social media communications. She was named #6 among digital creators, innovators, and strategists by PRWeek and recognized by Business Insider as one of the top 25 advertising executives on Twitter. Stephanie was also named to PRWeek’s “40 Under 40” roster and published Perspectives on Social Media Marketing, co-authored with B. Bonin Bough in 2010.