Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani is the founder of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Through its Summer Immersion Programs and Clubs, Girls Who Code is leading the movement to inspire, educate, and equip young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. Started in 2012, the organization has reached more than 40,000 girls in every state, and in 2016 ran 78 Summer Immersion Programs and 1,500 Clubs. 90 percent of alumnae have declared or intend to declare a major or minor in computer science.

Saujani began her career as an attorney and activist. She was also the first Indian American woman to run for Congress, a campaign that led her to start Girls Who Code when she visited local schools and saw firsthand the gender gap in computing classes. She later ran for New York Public Advocate and served as the Deputy Public Advocate at the Office of the New York City Public Advocate. Saujani has been named one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40, a WSJ Magazine Innovator of the Year, and one of Forbes’s Most Powerful Women Changing the World. Saujani graduated with majors in Political Science and Speech Communication from the University of Illinois and has a Master of Public Policy from Harvard and a J.D. from Yale.