Meet the faces building BOT.

Safia Porter is a tech ecosystem builder and nonprofit executive focused on expanding access to careers in technology and entrepreneurship.

She currently serves as the Executive Director of Building Our Tech (BOT), where she leads the strategy, partnerships, and program development behind initiatives designed to help people move into the digital economy with real skills and real opportunities.

Safia’s passion for this work is deeply personal. Growing up in underrepresented communities, she saw firsthand how limited access to technology education and career pathways could shape someone’s future. Early exposure to a STEM program opened her eyes to what was possible, but it also made clear how many people never get that opportunity. That experience stayed with her and ultimately shaped the work she leads today.

Under Safia’s leadership, Building Our Tech has served more than 2,100 individuals, supported over 335 entrepreneurs, helped participants earn 150+ industry credentials, and contributed to the creation and retention of 80+ jobs through its workforce and founder programs.

What drives Safia most is helping people see possibilities they may not have seen for themselves. Through tech workforce training, founder programs, and ecosystem partnerships, she works to break down barriers and create clear pathways into tech careers and entrepreneurship.

Safia believes that when people are given the tools, support, and confidence to step into new opportunities, the impact extends far beyond one individual. Careers grow, businesses launch, and communities become stronger.

At the heart of her work is a simple belief: access to technology and innovation should not be limited to a few. It should be a pathway that more people can see, step into, and succeed within.

Jehue works with founders, startups, and community partners to build pathways into entrepreneurship through emerging technology, strategic partnerships, and innovation. As a founder himself, Jehue is passionate about connecting entrepreneurs with the resources, relationships, and opportunities they need to grow sustainable businesses.

For more than 10 years, I’ve designed experiences, built systems, and forged partnerships that help tech communities and entrepreneurs thrive. From high-energy pitch competitions and workshops to collaborations with corporations, government agencies, and ecosystem leaders, I create initiatives that connect people, open doors, and drive meaningful impact.

I combine operational precision with storytelling, amplifying the journeys of founders, career-changers, and community members while turning programs and partnerships into real pathways for growth, opportunity, and innovation. My work is about more than events or projects — it’s about building a movement where tech, entrepreneurship, and community intersect.

Senior Web Developer with over 10 years of experience leading the design, development, and deployment of interactive and engaging websites for institutions of higher learning across the US. Hands-on Leader and Trusted Advisor focused on working with senior stakeholders and diverse cross-functional teams to build accessible and compelling sites used by thousands of students each day.

Twenty years of the same recurring problem: individuals, teams, and organizations that know exactly what they do but can’t communicate it in a way that earns trust before the pitch even starts.

Most approach this as a design problem, when in reality it’s actually an architecture problem.

I’m a brand architect and fractional strategist. My work sits at the intersection of positioning, identity systems, and the operational infrastructure that makes a brand function, not just look coherent. Before I design anything, I need to understand what the brand is actually doing structurally.

My formation is specific: 20+ years spanning brand strategy, creative direction, UX, front-end development, and digital platform work. Enterprise clients including Disney, Merriam-Webster, the NFL, and Walmart. Startups built from zero. Mid-market companies repositioning after years of drift. A Caribbean diaspora upbringing that taught me, early, that clarity is not a luxury, it’s the first thing that gets cut and the first thing that gets missed.

That last part isn’t incidental. Working at the edges of markets the standard playbook wasn’t built for has sharpened something I can’t get from a framework alone: the ability to read what a brand is actually communicating versus what it intends to communicate. The gap between those two things is usually where the work lives.

What I take on now: fractional brand leadership for companies navigating a positioning transition, identity system work with strategic scope, consulting engagements where the question is real and the decision-maker is in the room, and speaking on brand architecture, creative operations, and the invisible infrastructure that determines whether strategy lands or disappears.

If you’re building something that needs to communicate clearly before it scales, or you’ve been scaling and the communication still isn’t clear, I’m at davidyarde.com.