Her organization is “passionate about creating a more equitable technology ecosystem,” says Allison Scott, Ph.D., CEO of Kapor Foundation. “We understand that there are significant disparities in terms of representation in the tech sector – who creates products, what types of impacts that these products have on communities.”
Scott joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for an interview for WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
She explains there is underrepresentation throughout the tech ecosystem from K-12 education through venture capital investment.
Regarding young students, Scott says, “For about a decade, we’ve been looking at the at K-12 education, and we see disparities for a range of different reasons.
“One, in terms of policies at the state level. Some states have policies that require high schools to offer computer science. Others don’t. In California, only about 50% of our high schools are offering a computer science course at all. And in Oakland, where we’re based, only about 15% of high school students are taking a computer science course.
“So, we’re missing a huge segment of our population. A huge amount of talent has just not even accessed those type of courses or understood the power and the importance of computer science education.”
Scott also explains Kapor Foundation is interested in computer science education beyond its role in tech jobs. “In a city like Detroit where they’re very interested in racial justice, there’s a lot of organizing around things like police surveillance. So, connecting the dots between technology, understanding the technology, being able to create new technologies, and understanding social justice and racial justice issues within communities.”
Learn more about Kapor Foundation.
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
