Laura Weidman Powers was a 2016 New America CA fellow. She is the co-founder and CEO of CODE2040, a nonprofit that creates pathways to success in the innovation economy for Blacks and Latino/as. Weidman Powers first explored the tech space as a project manager in a small web development shop in New York and, most recently before CODE2040, she served as VP of Product at a consumer web startup in Los Angeles, redesigning the product development process to be inclusive of engineers.
Weidman Powers is a 2013 Echoing Green Fellow and a 2013 Stanford Social Innovation Fellow. The Root named her one of the 100 Most Influential African-Americans in 2013 and Goldman Sachs named her one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2013. In 2015, San Francisco Magazine saluted her as one of 37 Soldiers of Social Change, and Fortune named her one of 10 Female Executives on the Rise. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Forbes, NBC, Bloomberg, Fast Company, NPR, and others. Weidman Powers currently sits on the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. She has a BA cum laude from Harvard College and a JD and an MBA from Stanford University.