Philly Tech Week 2018

Shelly Bell is the founder of Black Girl Ventures (BGV), a social enterprise dedicated to finding creative place-based solutions to dissolve the race and gender gap in access to capital. She is the Google Digital Coach for DC - named Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 by Technically DC and one of the Top 40 New Power Women in Tech by DCA Live (2017). She is among the nation's most sought community organizers, motivational speakers and hosts in the Washington, DC Metro area. With a background is performance poetry, K-12 education and Computer Science she vibrates her passion for community building by helping people amplify their power to live the best life possible on their own terms!

Ellen is responsible for managing and leading the development and implementation of the City’s first smart city strategy for the City of Philadelphia’s SmartCityPHL initiative. She is driving the creation of the City’s first smart city roadmap that will provide guidance on how the city will build its next generation and future technology infrastructure. This work includes the establishment of: a project prioritization model; investment strategies; a collaborative governance model; diverse cross-departmental and cross-sector relationships; flexible standards for interoperable technology adoption and data integration; and stronger community and university partnerships to spur research and innovation in service delivery, economic development, environmental stewardship, and digital inclusion. She supports the work of the innovation strategy portfolio which is aimed in increasing internal capacity for innovation in municipal government. As a Temple University alum, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Master of Science degree in City and Regional Planning.

Allison Hossack is Principal of Research and Strategy at Think Company. In her role, she ensures the successful execution of research to discover insights about user needs that inspire creative and effective solutions to enhance user experience. As a hands-on leader and problem solver, she savors big challenges and opportunities. Her user research has supported strategic initiatives, digital roadmaps, and product prioritization for companies spanning finance, energy, media, and healthcare including Johnson & Johnson, Transamerica, and Wharton University.

Ruth Fasoldt serves as the Director of External Affairs for Link, the most comprehensive, free public Wi-Fi network in the world. Ruth manages Intersection's public-private partnership with both the City of New York for LinkNYC and Philadelphia for LinkPHL, in addition to overseeing all community outreach and timely local partnerships to help make Link a welcome part of the community.

Ruth has spent the past eight years advocating for the importance of stakeholders input and understanding. Prior to joining Intersection, Ruth was the Business Development Manager for ACCA USA, the US headquarters of the world's largest accounting accreditation. Ruth was also the Director of Membership and Special Events for the Association for a Better New York (ABNY). Ruth holds a B.A. in History from Union College, and Masters degrees in History and Archives Management from Simmons College.

Morgan is a Principal with Genacast Ventures where his responsibilities include evaluating investment opportunities, sourcing new deals, and managing the growth of existing portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Genacast, Morgan worked at Bloomberg Beta, the venture firm backed by Bloomberg. He also spent time as a software engineer at Tapad and Market-Based Management instructor at the Charles Koch Institute. Morgan earned his BS from Northeastern University.

Kenyatta Powers is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Department of Human Services in Maryland State Government. She has worked in State Government for almost 19 years in which 13 of those years in Executive Leadership. As CIO, Kenyatta provides innovative and state of the art technology guidance and support to the State of Maryland. She also manages an Enterprise environment that includes a $65 million annual budget, almost 400 IT staff, supports over 7000 end-users in over 100 locations across the state. She is currently managing a separate three-year $195 million project to modernize all IT computer systems for the department. Kenyatta is a mentor and provides teaching and guidance in Professional Development and was recently recognized for outstanding leadership in Information Technology. Kenyatta is also passionate about Community Development in which she is an active member of the Missionary Society and Feed the Hungry Program to support the community.

Head of Technology Transformation and Innovation in the Technology Solutions division of TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, Kevin Rocque heads the Technology Transformation and Innovation team. In this role, Kevin’s responsibilities include defining technology strategy that is aligned to business strategy, driving transformational change in the delivery methodology; identifying technology innovation opportunities, and ensuring effective management of the application portfolio. Kevin has had several roles within Technology Solutions including leading: Retail Technology, Commercial Technology, Application Development, Architecture, Project Management Office, Quality Management and Vendor Management.

Prior to joining TD Bank in 2006, he worked at Staples, Inc. where he held various technology leadership positions and led the build out of the international e-commerce platform. Prior to that he spent several years in consulting where he served as a technical director and worked at IBM where he focused on the application of emerging technologies.

Kevin earned a B.S. in Physics with a minor in Computer Science from Boston College, and an M.S. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Maryland at College Park where he focused on the application of parallel computing to weather and climate models.

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.