It is undeniable that genius is evenly distributed by zip code. Unfortunately, access and opportunity are not. Nearly 75 percent of high schools in California with the highest percentages of underrepresented students of color offer no computer science courses, and 75 percent of high schools with the highest numbers of low-income students offer no computer science courses. These findings are from Path Not Found, a groundbreaking report recently released by the Level Playing Field Institute that explores the lack of computer science classes available to lower-income students and students of color in California high schools and offers meaningful solutions to combat this problem. Join the Level Playing Field Institute at the Fairness Matters Forum to recognize the work of those who are closing the gap in access and opportunity in science, technology, engineering and math in underrepresented communities and to celebrate the promise of the next generation of innovators.

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Keynote Speaker

Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr.   -   President, Morehouse College
Dr. Wilson is the 11th President of Morehouse College, the nation's only private, liberal arts institution dedicated to the education of African American males.
During his tenure, he has worked to position Morehouse College as a leading force in STEM education with Morehouse being a leader in producing students who go on to earn advanced degrees in science, engineering and medicine. 
His career in education began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he served for 16 years in various leadership roles.  His career lead  him to George Washington University where he served as executive dean of the University’s Virginia campus and associate professor of higher education in the Graduate School of Education.
Dr. Wilson earned a master’s degree in theological studies and education and a doctorate in education from Harvard University.

Honoring

Dr. Dan Garcia   -   Teaching Professor, Computer Science, UC Berkeley
Dan serves as an advisor to a broad range of organizations and initiatives  working to broaden participation in computer science,  including the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM)  Education Board, Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles Development Committee, College Board’s AP Computer Science, Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS), SRI’s Principled Assessment of Computational Thinking (PACT) and the Level Playing Field Institute’s Summer Math and Science Honors Academy (SMASH).
He recently co-developed a computing course for non-computer science majors titled “CS10: The Beauty and Joy of Computing (BJC)”. This redesign earned a “Bears Breaking Boundaries” curriculum design award, a Lockheed Martin broadening participation grant, and was twice chosen as a national pilot for the new Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles course. In the spring of 2013, more women than men were enrolled in the course, marking the first time in recorded history that an introductory computing course at UC Berkeley achieved that distinction.
Dr. Garcia received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and dual BS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology  (MIT).



Erica is a Senior Engineer at Slack Technologies and advocate for diversity and inclusion in tech, and expanding access to tech education.
Erica’s career in tech began fourteen years ago doing domain administration for the University of Alaska Statewide System, before becoming a Googler in 2006. Erica’s role grew and shifted within Google, growing from Support Technician to Site Reliability Engineer.
She joined Slack in 2015, where she focuses on Build and Release Engineering. Erica is on the Advisory Boards for Atipica and Hack the Hood, and is a Tech Mentor for Black Girls Code.

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