Our Team

CEO

Kate Brodock

Kate is CEO of Women 2.0 and Founding Partner of W Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in women- and diverse-led tech startups.

She’s lived in the tech startup world for over 15 years, and has played an active leadership role in the women in tech ecosystem for over a decade, having led a global, 60+ chapter organization focused on women in technology and entrepreneurship as its President for several years.

She’s also an EIR at LaunchNY, and a long-time mentor for Techstars. She was recently CMO of untapt, an AI-driven tech talent marketplace based in NYC and has held the role of Adjunct Professor in PR and Marketing at at Syracuse University.

Driving diversity, equity and inclusion action and awareness has been absolutely central to her work, and she additionally enjoys putting her experience in the tech industry to work advising and mentoring startups.

Kate has spoken at and been featured in numerous places, including SXSWi, Collision Conference, Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored, IBT, MSNBC, TechCrunch, the BBC and Al Jazeera America.

She holds BAs in Political Science and African American History from the University of Rochester, an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University and an MA in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

When she’s not doing all *that*, she’s a very non-professional (but adventurous!) athlete, an equally as non-professional musician, can be found outdoors in any weather — skiing, biking, hiking, sailing — loves a good meal with bubbly, craft beer and good friends, hilariousness and life. She tries hard to read when she can, non-fiction only. Her husband is a startup-web-developer-turned-beer-guy and they live on a hops farm in Upstate New York with their two boys. She can be found on Twitter at @just_kate.

Senior Director of Allyship

Corey Ponder

Corey Ponder is an empathy practitioner and educator who works with innovative companies and individuals to build safe spaces for inclusive and diverse experiences.  

 Corey believes in the power of human connection and how that drives real impact.  Over his 10 years of professional experience as a policy analyst in the public sector and a program manager and policy professional in the private sector, Corey knows that an emphasis on emotional intelligence—self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal skills—leads to a more committed, productive, and engaged workforce creating a real impact in the workplace and spaces they occupy.

 Corey has scaled diversity programs across several companies, including with CIA and Facebook, and has developed and facilitated over 50 workshops on allyship, bias, privilege, and building empathy across the tech industry.  He has also spoken on allyship for several organizations, including Chan Zuckerberg initiative, Fitbit, MomWarrior, and Diversability.  He continues to publish on these topics as well, most recently being featured in Fortune Magazine’s raceAhead newsletter.  

 Corey holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Vanderbilt University.

Director of Talent Initiatives and Employer Branding

Hilliary Turnipseed

Hilliary Turnipseed is an experienced talent acquisition and management executive, specializing in early-stage startups, as well as the education technology, media production, and advertising industries. In addition to her recruitment work, Hilliary has successfully implemented diversity and inclusion strategies, along with employee engagement and wellness program initiatives. She is also well known for her viewpoints and approaches to optimizing workplace environments and policies for the Millennial Generation.

Most recently serving as the Head of Talent Acquisition for DC-based technology startup, Upside Business Travel, Hilliary built one of the industry’s most diverse engineering teams, while also earning them a spot on Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work” list. Prior to joining Upside, Hilliary managed talent acquisition efforts for companies such as POLITICO, Discovery Communications and Blackboard.

Hilliary currently serves as a Director for Women Who Code’s DC Chapter, and well as an Advisor for Tech, Rebalanced. She resides in Washington, DC, with a presence in NYC, LA and the SF Bay Area.

Director of Diversity + Inclusion Programs

Matthew Yazzie

At Women 2.0, Matthew is focused on bringing comprehensive, measurable solutions to the diversity space. He is also the Founder & CEO of the nonprofit, Others Project; the first real-time, consolidated, and open-source initiative dedicated to Diversity + Inclusion data.

Matthew is from Northwest New Mexico and a member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.S. degree in Management Science & Engineering, taking a brief stop at Oxford University to study technology’s impact on culture through an undergraduate research grant.

Matthew’s background includes work as COO at both Jurispect, in regulatory FinTech compliance, and also at FWD.us, working towards intelligent immigration reform. He was on the Global Ethics and Compliance founding team at Google, where he had responsibility for training and investigations, metrics, and compliance technology procurement.

Matthew currently serves as an Advisor to the Board for Project Include.

Director of Allies Program

Alison Cheung

Alison is the Director of Allies Program at Women2.0. She is also the Chief of Staff of Headstart, a revolutionary recruiting tool which uses Machine Learning to help companies identify which candidates would be the best fit for their job opportunities.

Previously the Marketing Brand Lead at Google in London, she has always believed in the importance of spreading awareness of the benefits and potential of technology, as well as its risks and the problem of the democratization of technology, resulting in unequal access. Ultimately, technology needs to be put to good use and to empower its users. Therefore, being at the forefront of shaping technological products and their marketing message truly excites her.

Empowerment has always been her primary goal in life. At university, she provided over 200 students with international volunteering exchanges to enable them not only to grow personally and professionally, but also to contribute towards helping others grow. Professionally, she has stayed true to this goal and endeavoured to work on products that add significant value to both consumers and businesses, such as Android and Think With Google.

In her free time, you’ll find her in a coffee shop trying to strike up conversations with coders (more like pestering) or in a yoga studio slipping on my yoga mat. She is improving… slowly but surely.