Catherine Bracy is a CEO and co-founder of TechEquity, a tax and housing policy advocacy organization whose backers include the

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetim ...

Early life and education

Bracy studied communication at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

, graduating in 2002. She wanted to be a journalist, but decided against it after completing an internship at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

in Boston.

Career

Bracy worked as Administrative Director of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Berkman Center for Internet & Society The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...

from 2002 to 2010. She joined the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, earning a master's degree in public policy in 2011. She worked for the

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

, managing the ''News Challenge'', an innovation competition for journalists. Bracy worked for the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

in 2011 and 2012, heading up the technology field office in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

.She helped to design the technology policy of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

. In 2013 she joined

Code for America Code for America is a 501(c)(3) civic tech non-profit organization that was founded by Jennifer Pahlka in 2009, "to promote ‘civic hacking’, and to bring 21st century technology to government." Federal, state, and local governments often lack ...

, looking after international programs. She served as Senior Director for

, building their ''brigade'' to over 50,000 civic tech volunteers. The brigade, an international network that works with local governments to improve cities, were responsible for 64% of the total growth of civic tech in the USA. She became interested in civic hacking, She regularly delivers keynote talks, talking about technology and politics. In 2017 she delivered a

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

''Why good hackers make good citizens'', that has been observed over 800,000 times. She is on the board of directors of the Data & Society Research Institute and the Public Lab. Bracy is co-founder and executive director of TechEquity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bracy, Catherine Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American founders Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences alumni Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs alumni American women founders American founders