Past Speakers

Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams is an author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, in 2018, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, when she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States. After witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every Georgian has a voice in our election system. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels.

Stacey
Abrams

Founder, Fair Fight Action

Kara Swisher

Kara Swisher is the executive editor of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast and co-executive producer of the Code Conference. Swisher worked in The Wall Street Journal’s San Francisco bureau. For many years, she wrote the column, “BoomTown,” which appeared on the front page of the Marketplace section and also on The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com. Previously, Swisher covered breaking news about the Web’s major players and Internet policy issues and also wrote feature articles on technology for the paper. She has also written a weekly column for the Personal Journal on home issues called “Home Economics.” Previously, Swisher worked as a reporter at the Washington Post and as an editor at the City Paper of Washington, D.C.

Kara
Swisher

Co-Founder, Recode

Angelica Ross

From the board room, to film/TV sets and even the Obama White House, Angelica Ross is a leading figure of success and strength in the movement for transgender and racial equality. Angelica made history as the first female transgender actress to secure two series regular roles, coming off two pivotal back-to-back performances in Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking hit drama, “Pose”, and his horror anthology series, “American Horror Story: 1984”.
Angelica has been featured in film, television, and live theatre. Her starring role in the Emmy Award-nominated short form series “Her Story,” received Special Recognition at the GLAAD Media Awards and her segment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah was also honored with a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Talk Show Episode. Ross is also the President of Miss Ross, Inc. and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, a program that helps people lift themselves out of poverty through technical training, digital work creating a social impact and bringing economic empowerment to marginalized communities.

Angelica
Ross

Founder, TransTech

Megan Rapinoe

Megan is an American professional soccer player who captains Reign FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the United States women's national soccer team, playing primarily as a winger. Winner of the Ballon d'Or Féminin and named The Best FIFA Women's Player in 2019, Rapinoe won gold with the national team at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and she played for the team at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup where the U.S. finished in second place. Since 2018, she co-captains the national team alongside Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan. She previously played for the Chicago Red Stars, Philadelphia Independence, and MagicJack in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), as well as Olympique Lyonnais in France's Division 1 Féminine.

Megan
Rapinoe

Co-captain, USWNT

Alicia Garza

Alicia Garza founded the Black Futures Lab to make Black communities powerful in politics. In 2018, the Black Futures Lab conducted the largest survey of Black communities in over 150 years. Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve -- to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. An innovator, strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, she is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network, an international organizing project to end state violence and oppression against Black people. The Black Lives Matter Global Network now has 40 chapters in 4 countries. She is also the co-founder of Supermajority, a new home for women’s activism. She shares her thoughts on the women transforming power in Marie Claire magazine every month.

Alicia
Garza

Principal, Black Futures Lab

ELIZABETH WARREN

Elizabeth Warren, a fearless consumer advocate who has made her life's work the fight for middle class families, was re-elected to the United States Senate for a second term on November 6, 2018, by the people of Massachusetts. Elizabeth is one of the nation’s leading progressive voices, fighting for big structural change that would transform our economy and rebuild the middle class. She is widely credited for the original thinking, political courage, and relentless persistence that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she helped stand up and has successfully protected millions of consumers from financial tricks and traps often hidden in mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products.

ELIZABETH
WARREN

U.S. Senator, Massachusetts

KAMALA HARRIS

In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Committee on the Budget. Kamala has spent her life fighting injustice. It’s a passion that was first inspired by her mother, Shyamala, an Indian-American immigrant, activist, and breast cancer researcher. In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Among her achievements as District Attorney, Harris started a program that gives first-time drug offenders the chance to earn a high school diploma and find employment. Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California's Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.

KAMALA
HARRIS

Vice President

ARLAN HAMILTON

Arlan Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5m into 100 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018 Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London.