Giving Back to Your Hometown with Bean Path’s Nashlie Sephus
Nashlie Sephus, Ph.D. brought her passion for technology and experience as an entrepreneur back to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi to bridge the technology gap and plant the seeds for a thriving community. Nashlie joins Phil and Grace in the season four finale to share how the nonprofit she founded, Bean Path, went from informal drop-in hours at the local library to a vital community organization with event spaces, expert-taught courses, and a growing track record of success in helping people of all ages gain tech essential skills. Nashlie also shares what surprised her about moving from the business world to running a nonprofit and offers advice for other donors with a vision.
Guest Info:
Nashlie Sephus, Ph.D. is a computer engineer and entrepreneur specialized in machine learning and algorithmic bias identification. She is a technology evangelist at Amazon Web Services and is co-founder and chief executive officer of Bean Path, a nonprofit startup bridging the technology gap in communities by hosting free tech office hours in local libraries, conducting youth coding workshops, and giving away grants. A native of Jackson, she is also developing 21 acres of land in the downtown area deemed the Jackson Tech District for strengthening a community amongst the next generation of technologists.
Nashlie formerly led the Amazon Visual Search team as an applied scientist after former start-up Partpic, for which she served as Chief Technology Officer, was acquired by Amazon. She received her Ph.D. from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2014 and received her B.S. in Computer Engineering from Mississippi State University in 2007.
Credits:
Podcast Production: Rococo Punch
Music: APM Music
Artwork: Jay Kustka
Resources:
The Bean Path
Praxis
Society of Women Engineers