Danielle is  passionate about using her skill, experience and voice to build a just world for Black people in America. After 15 years of working in faith-based organizations where she successfully built and led staff and volunteer teams and oversaw the execution of large scale programs and events, she made the intentional choice in 2018 to step away from her career in ministry after witnessing a blind eye being turned towards racialized acts committed on her daughter's High School campus. She chose to return to her passion and work in advocacy and social justice and joined the Code2040 team in 2018 as Volunteer Manager and currently serves as VP of Programs where she works to build, resource and design programs to equip emerging technologists to be racial equity advocates for themselves and their communities. Danielle is a wife, mother, communicator, leader and coach. She enjoys building meaningful relationships, creating opportunities to connect people to their passion, speaking up and out against injustice and leading programs that impact and change the lives of Black people, women and children. When she's not working she can be found reading, enjoying good food with her husband or sharing a laugh with friends.

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

As acting CEO for Code2040, Mimi Fox Melton has been instrumental in expanding Code2040 from serving as a bridge into high-tech industries for Black and Latinx people to organizing and supporting the overall changes necessary to dismantle racialized systems and ensure racial equity in the innovation economy. Her work is focused on all aspects of tech companies, from their operations and products to their corporate cultures, and how those aspects impact Black and Latinx workers and their communities. Her areas of expertise include coaching external staff, tech industry executives, and managers while overseeing the operations of Code2040, including designing curriculum and facilitating learning experiences. 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

Corey is a husband to his wife and best friend, a father to three amazing daughters and they live in the Bay Area of California. He is also a writer, artist, and communicator who's been invited to speak about social issues in various venues such as: SJSU, high schools, churches, local businesses and the Bay Area Q Commons event. He uses social media to facilitate important conversations about the obstacles this country faces in becoming a more just society. He's met with community organizers, artists, writers, and faith leaders to help formulate plans and actions aimed at promoting justice and dignity for all ethnicities. Check out the Extistential Podcast where Corey explores conversations about justice, faith, and culture from the prospective of real people telling real stories. Find out more about Corey at coreyevanleak.com 

(pronouns: he, him, his)

Brenda Salgado is founder of Nepantla Consulting and is in the process of establishing the Nepantla Center for Healing and Renewal. She holds degrees in Biology (BA), Developmental Psychology
(BA), and Animal Behavior (MS). Brenda is an author, public speaker, facilitator, teacher, healer, and organizational consultant. She has over 20 years of experience in transformative leadership development, nonprofit management, spiritual teaching, movement building, women’s health, and environmental and social justice. Her current projects are focused on transformational leadership, sacred economics, reconnecting others to ceremony and relationship with the land, mindfulness practices that draw from multiple traditions, ceremony for collective healing and transformation, and the weaving of mindfulness and indigenous teachings for our times. She is committed to co-creating a society filled with wholeness and beauty. Brenda is grateful to her ancestors for the values that have led her to spirituality, healing, and transformative leadership development. Find out more www.nepantlaconsulting.com 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

BSPOKE-iT (Brittany Williams) is a writer and poet and from Atlanta, Georgia. Writing and poetry for her began as personal therapy. But after sharing it with others, she recognized the power of spoken word to heal. Now her mission as an artist is to bring life to words that bring life to people. She's been blessed with the opportunity to travel and share her art across the country and is working to create more safe, positive and dynamic communities for those like herself to discover who they really are, find their voice and embrace their identity as artists. Bspokeit is also a podcast host, public speaker, and storyteller. Find out more about her at bspokeitpoetry.com 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

Bay Area born Umami splashed into the local scene in 2009 at Fingerbangerz crew party "Strut" at the iconic club formally known as Poleng lounge. Bubbling with an infectious passion for music and DJ culture, her craft and career grew organically and quick. 

Within a year of rockin' the turntables, she gained residency in SF with the prestigiously talented female DJ crew "Peaches" in San Francisco's hip Mission District. In 2012, she became a rotating DJ for The Golden State Warriors and is known to hype up fans before and after games. In 2015 she gained a weekly residency for the former Bay Area Throwback radio station on Q102 FM. She’s played various events and festivals and has been a guest DJ on Shade45’s Sway In The Morning.

A crowd-reading music aficionado both versatile and professional, sought-after DJ Umami has an eclectic taste and range when she plays, but her love for Hip Hop and R&B is the foundation in her sets. 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

Minerva is a queer Afro-Latina femme and loves to create and hold space for holistic healing designed to get us free and break the internalized chains, both individually and collectively. Minerva's experiences as a priestess in her ancestral practice of Ifa and explorations of the psychology of yoga, the philosophy of meditation and the science of Ayurveda, led her down a path towards the creation of Roots Healing. Minerva is consistently engaged in her own growth, truth seeking and becoming the best version of herself first so she can show up for others in a way that continues the work of dismantling generational trauma. 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

Selene Chala (She/Her/Hers) was born in Ecuador and raised in Los Angeles. Prior to her work at Code2040, She worked with Black and Latinx families in the intersection of housing, education and generational violence. It’s through her past work doing community organizing and relationship building that she found a deeper understanding of her identity as an Afro-Latina. She strongly believes that vulnerable conversations and giving and receiving honest compassionate feedback are pillars to transformation and racial equity. In her work with Code2040, she supports company partners think about the role racial equity and inclusion play in hiring processes and internships. When she’s not at work, she’s often reading, dancing salsa (often in her room) or watching reality tv and competition shows for some light hearted fun and drama. 

(pronouns: she, her, hers)

Dave Mekelburg is the Head of People and Chief of Staff at Wade & Wendy, an AI platform for automating the hiring process for companies and providing AI job discovery and career guidance for people. He is also the organizer of the Recruitment Automation Community, which comprises thousands of HR, Diversity & Inclusion, Talent Acquisition, and technology professionals committed to pushing hiring worldwide forward and making it equitable, empathetic, and effective. Prior to Wade & Wendy, Dave was an early employee in FoodTech and FinTech startups and co-founded BTWN, a program to help with the job search for people who have been laid off or are reentering the workforce after an absence. He holds a BA from the University of Michigan, and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, baby, and hopefully-not-too-loud-during-the-event dog. 

(pronouns: he, him, his)

Marc Hedlund is an engineering leader and Code2040 board member. Over his career, he’s worked in leadership roles at Stripe, Etsy, Lucasfilm, O’Reilly Media, and most recently, Mailchimp. He has also co-founded three startups. If you have questions about joining a company in an engineering role, finding sponsors and accomplices, starting your own company, Marc would be happy to help.

(pronouns: he, him, his)