LGBT in Tech

Want to learn more about what it means to be LGBT in Tech? Or maybe you're an ally of the LGBT community and want to do more for your colleagues.

Join leaders in the tech industry and learn about how they are creating change in the workplace.

Doors will open at 5:30 pm and drinks and food will be provided. Event will start promptly at 6:00 pm.

Panelists include:

Uli Bilke, Chief of Staff, Yelp

Tariq Meyers, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Lyft

Tariq Meyers leads Inclusion & Diversity for Lyft. He previously worked on Lyft’s Government Relation’s team as a Community Affairs Manager supporting it’s regulatory priorities across the country. A Boston native with a hunger for change, Tariq honed his acumen for social equity at the Greenlining Institute in Berkeley, where he served as the[masked] Economic Equity Fellow. There, Tariq helped organize the needs of Greenlining’s coalition—a collective of 100 community based organizations—and elevate them to federal regulators in Washington, D.C.; actively calling for greater inclusivity and transparency in the policy making process. Ultimately, Tariq envisions a tech community that helps to transform endless barriers into limitless potential for our nation’s most talented. Favorite song? Bad & Boujee.

Kenzi Connor, President and Founder of Cloud City

Kenzi Connor is the President of Cloud City Development, a local, queer women owned design and development consultancy. She is on the San Francisco Pride Board of Directors and is longtime, outspoken proponent for building diverse teams within the tech field. She has built engineering teams from the ground up for startups who went on to exit, helped chart topping rockstars (not the tech kind) launch apps to their millions of fans, and debugged and optimized apis serving billions of monthly hits. Her true passion is for building more diverse, human-centered teams that bring out everyone's best.

Moderator:

Isabel Porras, Associate Director of Research, Out & Equal

Isabel joined the Out & Equal staff in February 2016 as Associate Director of Research. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Smith College and is a PhD Candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of California, Davis. Isabel’s deep commitment to LGBT equality and intersectional feminism inform both her research and teaching. As an Instructor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UC Davis, Isabel taught various courses including Introduction to Queer Theory, Introduction to Feminist Theory, and Theory and History of Sexualities. She brings this intersectional lens to corporate diversity and LGBT workplace advocacy specifically.