Leanne Pittsford

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Leanne is an entrepreneur, investor and thought leader at the intersection of technology and diversity. As the founder of Lesbians Who Tech, she’s built a global community of over 20,000 queer women and allies in tech to create community, increase visibility and improve representation among women and lesbians in technology. Lesbianswhotech.org/sanfrancisco2017/ Lesbians Who Tech hosts three conferences annually including San Francisco, New York and an international Summit. Due to the demand for more innovation in this realm, two new programs will be launched this year, Bring a Lesbian to Work Day & a coding scholarship fund for queer women who want to learn how to code. Before her work with Lesbians Who Tech, Leanne founded and led Start Somewhere, a design and technology agency focused on helping social good organizations. During her time at Start Somewhere she launched the following innovative initiatives: Social Good Tech Week, Lean Impact, helping social good organizations use Lean Startup principles and When You Work at a Nonprofit, a fun and creative tumblr blog only the nonprofit community would understand. From 2006 to 2010 Leanne served as the senior director at Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ organization in the U.S. where she worked on the No on Prop 8 campaign. She also served on the board of StartOut, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ entrepreneurs and co-founded the Lesbian Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program during her time on the board. Recently named 40 under 40 in the San Francisco Bay Times, her current investments include Avari and Republic Restoratives. Follow me on Twitter: @Lepitts