Philly Tech Week 2018

Thomas Jay Rush is the founder of QuickBlocks.io, a blockchain focused consultancy and software company delivering account-specific, articulated data from the Ethereum blockchain. Mr. Rush is also the founder of the Philadelphia Ethereum Meetup group. Prior to founding QuickBlocks.io, Mr. Rush served as President and CEO of Great Hill Corporation, an Internet-based software vendor first started in 1994. A practicing poet, Mr. Rush speaks and writes widely about the blockchain and its implications.

The Founder + CEO of Digitability, she launched a new model that fully prepares people with cognitive disabilities for our tech-driven and highly social workforce. Digitability develops a sense of empowerment and the ability to persevere; this is helping people with neurodiverse needs overcome existing social and attitudinal barriers to obtaining and sustaining employment.

Christina Lopes is a co-founder of The One Health Company. Previously, Christina was a Managing Director of Cerberus Capital Management and since Cerberus, Christina has been working on deals in the innovation space including Biotech for AIMCO. Christina has served on the Board of International Planned Parenthood for the Western Hemisphere, participated in The United Nations Commission for the Status of Women, and lectured at Columbia University. She was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in March 2010. This honor is bestowed each year to recognize the most distinguished young leaders nominated below the age of 40 from around the world. Christina was also honored a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum in 2014. She holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, a Masters in International and Political Affairs from Columbia University, and Doctoral Coursework in Ethics at Princeton University.

Wendell Potter is an author, former corporate public relations executive and founder of Philadelphia-based Tarbell.org, a new journalism nonprofit. Wendell was a newspaper reporter in his first career and covered business and politics in Tennessee before joining Scripps-Howard’s Washington bureau to cover Congress, the White House and Supreme Court. In his post-journalism career, he served as head of corporate communications for two of the country’s largest health insurers, Humana (1989-1993) and Cigna (1993-2008). Since leaving the corporate world Wendell has returned to journalism and currently serves as Tarbell.org’s executive director. He also has written three books: Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (a New York Times bestseller and winner of the 2011 Ridenhour Book Prize); Obamacare: What’s in It for Me: What Everyone Needs to Know about the Affordable Care Act; and Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

Maya Baratz is the Managing Director of Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator, Powered by Techstars, through which she actively invests in media and connectivity companies. Maya is a longtime startup advisor and a recent Harvard University Nieman Fellow with a deep footing in and passion for consumer products. She has led the strategy and development of new-to-market digital products and revenue streams, most recently as the Head of New Products at Disney/ABC Television and, prior to that, as a product and media executive for companies including The Wall Street Journal, MTV, Flickr and Monster.com. Maya has also written extensively about technology and startups for publications including Fortune, Fast Company, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. And she has created and led a product development course at institutions including Columbia Business School and General Assembly.

Emeka Oguh is a seasoned entrepreneur, financial wellness expert and the founder & CEO of PeopleJoy, a student loan paydown service that helps employers attract millennial talent and lower turnover through matching contributions to their employees’ student loans. Emeka is also a board member of the Philadelphia regional chapter of SHRM, where he co-chairs the sponsorship committee. He is a Huffington Post contributor, providing articles related to financial wellness and managing student debt. Emeka earned a BS degree from Rutgers University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

As Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Strategic Partnerships at Peirce College, a higher education institution that has been educating working adults for over 150 years, Uva Coles is leading the way for strengthening and diversifying Philadelphia's workforce. Throughout her career Coles has focused on creating inclusive and equitable workforce collaborations that align education, skills, and purpose. Coles has played a key role in the workforce steering committee, which designed the city’s new workforce initiative, “Fueling Philadelphia’s Talent Engine,” officially launched in February. As an Afro-Latina immigrant, Coles also focuses on and speaks to immigrant and Afro-Latinx issues and the intersectionality of gender and race.

Through the healing power of art, Michael O’Bryan serves as an advocate for human rights and social change in underserved communities. His professional experience touches the worlds of performance art, public health and trauma informed care. Much of his work has centered on amplifying the voices of marginalized populations. Michael currently serves as Director of Youth and Young Adult Programs at The Village of Arts and Humanities and as a consultant, locally and nationally, on projects exploring the intersections of trauma informed practice and community well-being.