About Kapor Foundation

Alexis Martin, PhD is the Director of Grants Management, where she is responsible for operations to fund organizations that advance the Kapor Foundation mission. This includes nonprofit grantmaking, strategic program-related investments, research grants, and staff philanthropic giving, as well as fiscal sponsorships and incoming grants management. Previously, Alexis was on the research team, where she conducted and funded research examining issues of access and opportunity in the tech pipeline. Alexis received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Education (Social and Cultural Studies program) at U.C. Berkeley and her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences from the University of Redlands. Prior to her work with the Kapor Center, Alexis taught future educators at U.C. Berkeley & Sonoma State University and worked with teachers in professional development inquiry groups examining equity in their classrooms. She has also taught high school social studies and done outreach with students who were the first in their families to attend college. Alexis enjoys salsa dancing, cooking, live music, Bay Area adventures, and her energetic toddler daughter.

Allison Scott, PhD is the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation, formerly the Chief Research Officer, who led a research team aiming to enhance diversity in the tech ecosystem through: (a) conducting landscape studies and research on interventions within educational settings and the technology workplace, and (b) disseminating effective research-based strategies, resources, and practices across the tech ecosystem. Prior to leading research at KCSI, Dr. Scott was the Program Leader for the NIH’s Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-funded Workforce Program, a set of three experimental initiatives implementing and examining the effectiveness of training, mentoring, and institutional development interventions to enhance diversity in biomedical research. Dr. Scott was previously the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI), overseeing a research agenda examining barriers to the pursuit and completion of degrees and employment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) among underrepresented populations. Her research examined the influence of perceived barriers and stereotypes in the sciences, the double-bind facing women of color, and the effectiveness of research-based interventions in improving STEM outcomes for underrepresented groups. In addition, Dr. Scott led the longitudinal evaluation of LPFI’s pre-college STEM intervention programs and is Principal Investigator for an NSF CE21 grant to increase access, success, and preparation in computer science for underrepresented students in California. In just 2 years, this project has demonstrated significant increases in the numbers of underrepresented students of color and girls completing computer science courses, taking the AP CS exam, and intending to major in CS in college. Dr. Scott holds a Ph.D. in Education, with a specialization in School Psychology, from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Hampton University. Allison enjoys traveling, jogging, and drinking Diet Cokes.

Ashleigh Richelle is the Associate Director of Marketing and Communications for Kapor Foundation. She is a Bay-Area born and raised Latine/x leader and compassionate communications professional, storytelling for connection, equity, & progress.

Before joining the Kapor Center, Ashleigh was the Associate Director of Communications at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA). She was tasked with developing OMCA’s storytelling strategy, leading cross-functional communications, and creating institutional messaging.

Her career spans over 10 years — from PR and media relations, digital storytelling, graphic design, website and project management, to social media, campaign strategy, and cross-functional collaborative leadership. She’s also worked with startups and tech companies like Daughters of Rosie, CBS Interactive, and LinkedIn.

Ashleigh enjoys coffee, crosswords, and cooking, and prefers birds over most people. She feels most at peace when dancing salsa, has an extensive collection of earrings made by local Bay Area artisans, and if given the option, would exclusively communicate at work in GIFs.

Cecilia is our Tech Policy Assistant and is passionate about creating a more equitable technology ecosystem by closing racial and socioeconomic gaps.

Originally from Skaneateles, New York, Cecilia has always been committed to social justice, founding Skaneateles for Social Justice in 2020. She graduated from Brown University in May 2024 with a degree in International and Public Affairs and a Certificate in Data Fluency. She has previously interned at The White House and the National Geographic Society and most recently, she interned with the Digital and Cyberspace Program at the Council on Foreign Relations and is a part of the All Tech is Human mentorship program.

Outside of work, Cecilia is the Deputy Communications Director for Encode Justice, the world’s first and largest youth movement dedicated to promoting safe and equitable AI. In her free time, Cecilia loves painting and discovering new music and is excited to explore the Bay Area’s live music and food scene as a new resident.

Cynthia Overton, Ph.D is the Senior Director of Tech Workplace Initiatives at the Kapor Center, where she builds community and provides learning opportunities for professionals advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the tech industry. In this role, she leads Diversity Advocates, a professional learning community dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce throughout the tech industry. She also operates Our Collective, a group of tech professionals working to advance inclusion for Black and Latinx talent through employee resource groups. In addition, Cynthia serves as co-principal investigator for a research study funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and led by Quality Education for Minorities Network that seeks to expand the evidence-based understanding of HBCU STEM learning environments in which undergraduate students are most likely to thrive and subsequently go on to attain doctoral degrees in science and engineering.

Prior to joining the Kapor Center, Cynthia worked for 13 years at a behavioral and social sciences research firm leading initiatives that enhance opportunities for underrepresented populations. This included helping to launch and sustain corporate-wide diversity and inclusive efforts. Cynthia also has a long history of working on federally funded projects that aim to improve outcomes for people with disabilities.

Cynthia holds a B.A. from Hampton University, an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in learning technologies, and a masters degree in P.R./corporate communications from Georgetown University. She also completed the Diversity and Inclusion certificate program through Cornell University and the assistive technology applications certificate program offered by California State University, Northridge Center on Disabilities.

Dinah Consuegra is the Chief of Staff and Learning for the Foundation to provide immediate support for internal and external projects. A native Chicagoan, proudly
born to immigrant parents, Dinah has been focused on closing the opportunity gap in her more than 20 year career. Dinah has served in various senior leadership capacities for districts, schools and nonprofits. She has spent half of her career working directly with Black and Brown youth in Los Angeles as a teacher, administrator, and Principal. Since moving to Oakland in 2009, she has focused her efforts on national systemic change specifically focused on freedom and justice for Black and Brown communities. Most recently, she was Director of Partnership Development at PBLWorks where she oversaw all district, international and Institute partners. Alongside the CEO, she also co-led organizational efforts around advancing racial justice. Prior to that, Dinah was the West Regional Director for EL Education providing leadership coaching and supporting a network of 32 schools across 6 states. Outside of her passion for leaving behind a legacy of liberation, Dinah delights in hip hop culture, being a mom, and urban farming at her home in East Oakland.

Frieda McAlear is the Director of Seeding Innovation, where she brings her skills as a social science researcher and her passion for working with and for marginalized and underrepresented communities, at the Kapor Center. She has nearly a decade of experience managing projects, developing evaluation and research methodology and building nonprofit technology capacity with socially progressive organizations in the Bay Area, Europe and Southern Africa.

In 2013, she worked as an evaluator for an HIV/AIDS clinic serving villages in Lesotho and as a Program Coordinator for ZeroDivide in San Francisco in 2014. She holds a Master of Research in Geography from Queen Mary University of London, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Vesalius College in Brussels. She has nearly a decade of experience managing projects, developing evaluation and research methodology and building nonprofit technology capacity with socially progressive organizations in the Bay Area, Europe and Southern Africa.

Kadeem Palacios is a software engineer currently serving as the Tech Support Engineer for the Kapor Center’s Tech Workplace Initiatives team. Initially starting as an intern and later transitioning into his current role, he leverages his technical expertise to provide advice, act as a liaison between partners, and implement technical solutions. During his internship, he led the migration of the Diversity Advocates community from its original Google Group to a new community platform. Presently, his role involves the development and management of multiple platforms, communities, and web app solutions that seamlessly integrate into our collaborative environments.

Before his current role, Kadeem served as a Computer Science Instructor at SMASH and later worked as a contract iOS developer. In his free time, you'll find him immersed in building side projects, running, exploring emerging technologies, and enjoying quality time with family and friends.
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Kalisha Davis is the CS Equity Curriculum Project Director, who guides and develops all aspects of the Equitable Computer Science Curriculum Initiative, a multi-year endeavor led by Kapor Center. Before this role, Kalisha served as the Director of Community Outreach and Engagement and Detroit Revitalization Fellow at the Detroit Historical Society. While there, she was the architect of more than 200 community-focused partnerships endeavors and played a critical role in creating the now internationally lauded and nationally award-winning Detroit 67 Project: Looking Back to Move Forward. This multi- faceted community engagement initiative honors and elevates the history and stories behind Detroit’s July 1967 Uprising. After contributing her time and talents to such organizations as Search Institute, the Forum for Youth Investment, the National League of Cities: Institute for Youth Education and Families, and the Thrive Foundation for Youth, she returned to her native Detroit in 2015. She remains a committed servant leader. Kalisha is the co-founder of the city-wide community engagement network, ConnecteD, and mentors numerous young people and young professionals, often through the programs and learning opportunities she develops. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Baruch College of Public Affairs (a degree earned as a National Urban Fellow in 2011) and a Bachelor’s degree in Print Journalism from Central Michigan University. Kalisha enjoys travel, yoga, and outdoor activities with family and friends.

Kathia Ramos is the Senior Program Associate for Tech Workplace Initiatives. In this capacity, they lead membership onboarding and success for Diversity Advocates and Our Collective. Diversity Advocates is a professional learning community advancing diversity and inclusion throughout the tech industry. Our Collective is a network of talented professionals focused on building a more diverse and inclusive workforce for Black and LatinX communities through Employee Resource Groups. Kathia also leads stakeholder communications for Tech Workplace Initiatives. Prior to the Kapor Center, they worked as a Program Associate for Enroll Oakland, a non-profit organization committed to helping Oakland families choose the best Oakland public schools for their children. Kathia feels fortunate and motivated to be able to work with a mission that aligns and helps develop opportunities for underrepresented groups. When not working they enjoy learning about LGBT history, photography, and spending time with friends and family.

Kirsten Lundgren is the Director of Economic and Workforce Initiatives, leading research, partnerships, and programming focused on the future of work, innovative tech workforce development, and resilient tech ecosystems.. In this role, she also oversees Pathways to Tech, a Kapor Center initiative that connects racially underrepresented talent to inclusive upskilling opportunities and high-wage, high demand tech careers.

A proud Oakland native, she previously co-founded TechHire Oakland — part of the Obama White House TechHire initiative that expanded inclusive tech sectors and talent pipelines across 70 US cities. Prior to this domestically-focused work, Kirsten managed program design and new business development for TechnoServe in East Africa, delivering a $30 million portfolio of inclusive market/enterprise development programs that generated jobs and income increases across five countries. She also worked in international microfinance at Women’s World Banking and Trickle Up while completing graduate studies at Columbia University. Outside of work, Kirsten enjoys triathlons and backcountry adventures.

Laura Hinton is the Data Visualization Manager at the Kapor Foundation, where she finds innovative ways to synthesize, manage, and visualize data and insights related to racial equity across the tech ecosystem.

Before the Kapor Foundation, Laura worked as an Educational Policy Analyst with San Francisco Unified School District on the African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative, where she analyzed data and evaluated programs to support the success of Black students in SFUSD. Laura previously worked at both SMASH and the Kapor Center in program operations and data visualization and holds a master’s degree in Education Data Science from Stanford Graduate School of Education.

In her free time, Laura enjoys spending time with her family, watching sports, exercising, and reading.

Lili Gangas is the Chief Technology Community Officer working to create new and more inclusive tech innovation ecosystems regionally & nationally. Her work is centered at the intersection of technology, racial justice, and action driven partnerships to tackle pressing social and economic inequities of underrepresented communities. Her areas of focus and interest include tech advocacy themes such as closing the Broadband Access & Adoption, Future of Work(ers), Responsible Technology, and Ecosystem Building as they relate to new models with cross sector partners. Lili believes that it is critical that we help prepare and upskill communities of color for the future and encourage going beyond being consumers to also being creators and owners. She was a New America CA fellow focused on Tech for Good,was recognized as SF Business Times Most Influential Women in Business and SF Business Times 40 Under 40, and is an MBA lecturer at Mills College. Lili was also a featured Salesforce Dreamforce and TEDxOakland speaker. Before coming to the Kapor Center, Lili was an Associate Principal at Accenture Technology Labs Open Innovation team, based out of Silicon Valley, focused on partnerships and programming to connect startups to Fortune 500 clients. She was also a founding member of the Innovation Services team at Booz Allen specializing in crowdsourcing, prize challenges, and open data solutions at the federal level. Before that, Lili could be found in the lab working on software and hardware solutions for the aerospace industry as a Senior Multi-Disciplined Software Engineer at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems. She is an advisor to tech focused nonprofits such as AI-4-All.org as well as community investing organizations such as The Unity Council and Pacific Community Ventures. Lili is a proud immigrant from Bolivia and champions Latinx in tech initiatives across the U.S. She is a new board member of LA Collab to increase Latinx representation across tech, entertainment, media, and advocacy sectors. Lili holds an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.

Lisa Cruz Novohatski is the Senior Data & Insights Analyst working at the organization to support the various data and evaluation efforts underway to assess the impact of our programs, including implementing analyses plans across SMASH programming, collaborating on the Foundation’s national efforts aiming to expand computer science, and supporting data analyses needs for landscape reports. Lisa most recently worked at Gale, A Cengage Company, where she worked with public library customers to help them get the most of their experience with Gale’s analytics products. She walked them through a proprietary dashboard, pointing out insights along the way and talking through implications of the data. Prior to Gale, Lisa worked at the New York Public Library on a team of internal consultants called Strategic Research and Data Analytics. As a team, they supported data work across the institution, so she could assess the attendance data for Out of School Time programs or assess needs around reference.

Outside of work, Lisa loves spending time with her two little girls. She also loves knitting and baking.

Rachel Goins is the Director of Implementation for Foundation Research. In this role, she supports strategic planning and execution of research projects. Rachel brings over 15 years of experience drawing on improvement and implementation science to design, manage, and deliver research-based technical assistance (TA) and capacity-building initiatives. This has included communities of practice, professional development training, program design, and strategic planning – all through a lens of racial equity. Prior to her role at the Kapor Center, she co-led two national centers focused on: 1) personalized learning and ed tech and 2) educator quality and diversity. Rachel also acted as an advisor and subject matter expert on other federal education initiatives focused on college and career readiness and place-based approaches to educational equity.

In her free time, Rachel enjoys documentaries, libraries, and neutralizing empty slogans and soundbites with real-talk, common sense, and evidence.

Shana V. White is the Director of CS Equity Initiatives at the Kapor Center. She will be working on Equitable CS Initiatives, supporting both CSforCA and CSforGA, and working with stakeholders in Georgia to improve teacher professional development and increase participation and success for students of color in K12 CS courses. Prior to joining the Kapor Center, Shana worked for sixteen years in K12 education, serving in both public and private schools as a teacher and instructional technology specialist in metro Atlanta. Shana has a passion for disrupting the status quo, works to connect and create community for educators online, and has a strong commitment to racial justice and equity in K12 schools. She has a B.S. from Wake Forest University, a M.S. from Winthrop University, a Ed.S from Kennesaw State University. Outside of work, Shana enjoys spending time with her husband and two kids, watching live sports, volunteering, watching rom coms, and lifting weights.

Sonia Koshy, PhD is the Chief Research Officer, who oversees the evaluation of programs and initiatives that aim to drive equity in computer science education and the tech workplace. She also helps to disseminate key research related to transforming tech ecosystems into more inclusive spaces. Sonia is a developmental psychologist, researcher, and evaluator, with a Ph.D. in Child Development from Tufts University. Prior to the Kapor Center, Sonia came from Algorhythm, a startup that creates automated, real-time reporting for the social sector. In her role as the Applied Social Science Director, she laid the research foundation for the Youth Development Impact Learning System and provided research and evaluation services to key clients such as Youth INC, The Robert Bowne Foundation, Literacy Inc., and the IKEA Foundation.

Prior to working at Algorhythm, she was the Evaluation Manager at the Thrive Foundation for Youth where she worked on process and outcome evaluations to assess impact on numerous adolescent outcomes. She has collaborated closely with organizations such as Girl Scouts of Northern California, Camp Fire, Y Silicon Valley, and Girls Inc. of Alameda County.