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Judges Spotlight February 23, 2016

5 Things You Should Know About Reshma Saujani

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Education activist Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of enterprising nonprofit Girls Who Code as well as an Executive Judge here at The Webbys. Here's a look at some of the amazing work she's doing in tech.
Girls Who Code logo_Reshma Saujani Judges Spotlight Feature
The logo for Reshma's nonprofit Girls Who Code.

Historically, the personal computer has been under the purview of “bro-grammers,” as Reshma would say. Today the number of female college graduates with a computer science degree is 18%—less than half that it was in the 1980s (37%). The noted absence of women in leadership roles in the tech world inspired Reshma to act: “Coding can help level the economic playing field and open a whole new world of potential for a generation of girls we’ve left behind.” Her company, Girls Who Code, seeks to remedy the gender disparity in the tech industry and help many more girls build careers in tech.

Girl Coders Run The World

Education activist Reshma Saujani is the Founder and CEO of enterprising nonprofit Girls Who Code as well as an Executive Judge here at The Webbys. Here's a look at some of the amazing work she's doing in tech.

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A Career in Politics

Before founding Girls Who Code, Reshma got her start in politics. She served as Deputy Public Advocate for the City of New York and surged onto the political scene when she ran for US Congress in 2013—the first American Indian woman to do so in history.

A Thought Leader in Media

She schooled Trevor Noah about how girls were excluded from computer science on The Daily Show, and her writing has writing has appeared in The New York Times and Re/Code among other major publications.

She's a Game Changer for Businesswomen

Besides making Fast Company’s 100 most creative people, Reshma was also included on Fortune’s 40 under 40, CNBC’s Next List, Forbes’s Most Powerful Women Changing the World, Crain’s New York 40 Under 40, AOL/PBS’s Next MAKER, Ad Age’s Creativity 50 & many, many more.

She's Also a Published Author

If offline media is more your thing, check out Saujani’s books. Her first, Women Who Don’t Wait in Line, explores her own experiences and the lives of accomplished women like Anne-Marie Slaughter, Randi Zuckerberg, Mika Brzezinski and Susan Lyne for a stirring narrative of how to be ambitious and overcome roadblocks in one’s life.

Her most recent book, Girls Who Code, is a fully-illustrated introduction to coding designed to inspire young women to build their own sites, apps, and more.

 

Vibrant Family Life

Talk about a power couple: Reshma is married to tech entrepreneur Nihal Mehta. Nihal is a Founding Partner at VC firm Eniac which has provided seed stage funding for Webby Winners Airbnb, Soundcloud & Kanvas.

Reshma and Nihal have a son Shaan and a bulldog named Stanley—both also big on the Internet. Reshma chronicles their lives on Twitter @babyshaan and @stanleythepuppy respectively.

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