Meet Stephanie Eldridge, Code Differently Co-Founder and CEO
19 Mar 2021
News
Just two years ago, CEO Stephanie Eldridge and CIO Tariq Hook launched the learning center Code Differently, and their impact since cannot be overstated.
In the technology sector, women represent 25% of the workforce while Black females represent only 3% and Hispanic females only 1%. Code Differently aims to increase diversity within the technology workplace. Enrollees range from adult college computer science or engineering majors to high school students. The makeup of Code Differently’s classes are 98% Black and Latinx, and within that 40% are female.
“Diversity and inclusion has not only been a part of our mission from the beginning,” Eldridge says, “it’s frankly been a part of our lives.”
Eldridge grew up in Aliquippa, a small town in Western Pennsylvania that she describes as “a tech desert.” Aliquippa is a blue-collar town that was once booming with steel mills. Once the steel mills declined, the economy declined and the educational system was impacted. Her time in Aliquippa became the foundation that motivated her into creating a different possibility.