Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka founded Code for America in 2009 to provide a way for talented, passionate designers and developers to help reboot government. Based on the idea of “government as a platform,” the organization puts small startup teams inside City Halls around the country. The teams of Code for America fellows build light-weight solutions to problems the cities and their citizens face, but more importantly, they show what’s possible and share different ways of thinking with their partners in government. The fellows gain a unique understanding the value of the public sector and the challenges it faces, especially in this era of dwindling resources. They become lifelong proponents of transparency, engagement and efficiency in public service. Jennifer spent eight years at Miller Freeman and CMP Media where she led the Game Group, responsible for GDC, Game Developer magazine, and Gamasutra.com; there she also launched the Independent Games Festival and served as executive director of the International Game Developers Association. She ran the Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 events for TechWeb and co-chaired the successful Web 2.0 Expo. She is a graduate of Yale University and lives in Oakland, CA with her daughter and six chickens.