Change Wave

Bobby Kolba is the VP of Engineering at Textio. He has grown from first engineer to leading the engineering team at Textio, which is one of the fastest growing teams in Seattle. The team is made up of over 40 amazing individuals across engineering, data science, and technical program management. His top priority is cultivating the strong culture that has made Textio one of Seattle’s Best Places to Work as they build out a world-class team to create the future of writing, one hard problem at a time.

Kelly Abcarian is the SVP of Product Management at Nielsen. She has been with Nielsen for 14 years focusing on their Television and Advanced Advertising. Kelly has had experience working with publishers, agencies and advertisers in TV, Radio, Print and Online space and is an expert in the Digital Industry Globally. Kelly has a detailed knowledge planning, activation and measurement tools and methodologies combined with insight into how these tools are best used to optimize cross media advertising.

Jason Cohen is the Founder and CTO at WP Engine. WP Engine has an annual revenue of $100M, the largest Digital Experience Platform for WordPress, serving billions of requests per day for 75,000 customers. It has 500 employees are devoted to world-class customer service (NPS 70) and the most sophisticated infrastructure for scalable, secure, performant WordPress-powered websites.

Barbara is Intel's Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer and VP of Human Resources for the Technology, Systems Architecture and Client Group, the company’s largest business group. She leads Intel’s Diversity in Technology initiative which resulted in reaching full representation in Intel's U.S. workforce in October 2018, two years ahead of schedule. The company’s workforce now reflects the percent of women and underrepresented minorities available in the U.S. skilled labor market.

Loni Mahanta is the VP of Public Policy Development at Lyft. She leads the Policy Development & Research team at Lyft, which focuses on high level strategic solutions to Lyft’s long-term policy issues as well as shaping and driving operational and programmatic priorities for the company. Her primary focus areas include sustainability, city and transportation planning, future of work, safety, and policy research/analytics.

Daphne Larose is a Senior Software Engineer at Niantic. She cares deeply about doing great work and she is a path to change the world. Niantic is a pioneer in real world gaming — adventures on foot with others — which has helped transform the Earth into the new game board

Patrisse Cullors is an artist, organizer, and freedom fighter from Los Angeles, CA. She is the Co-founder of Black Lives Matter and founder of Dignity and Power Now, she is also a performance artist, popular public speaker, and a New York Times bestselling author. She’s received many awards for activism and movement building, including being named by the Los Angeles Times as a Civil Rights Leader for the 21st Century and the Sydney Peace Prize for her work with Black Lives Matter.

Sharon Brogdon is the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at RetailMeNot. As a strategic diversity professional and thought leader, she has developed and implemented highly successful programs, processes and events to drive under-represented employee recruitment, development and retention. She is known for her ability to identify, analyze and execute best practices and work collaboratively to promote equity, inclusion and diversity as a core central value.

Oris Stuart is the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the NBA. He is a global diversity, inclusion and business executive whose visionary leadership and strategic execution led to the formation and growth of Global Novations, the world’s preeminent diversity and inclusion consultancy and training firm. He is a dynamic and skilled facilitator who positions executives, leaders and individual contributors of many of the world’s leading organizations to champion the inclusion agenda for their enterpri

Billie Sue Chafins is the VP of Software Development at Hulu. She is an engineering leader with 18+ years of experience shipping world-class consumer and enterprise software. Key skills include effective communication, strong cross-team collaboration, and a relentless drive for closure. Proven track record for building and maintaining highly effective teams. Hulu is the leading premium streaming service offering live and on-demand TV and movies, with and without commercials, both in and outside the home.