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TECHNOLOGY
Desa Burton
Zip Code Wilmington
Desa Burton has served as lead counsel on intellectual property for InterDigital in Philadelphia, tasked as the lead on research and development, technology innovation and government contracts. In 2019, she was selected as the next leader of Zip Code Wilmington, a nonprofit focused on offering 12-week courses in software development
and data engineering. Over the last eight years, Zip Code has successfully trained more than 600 software developers who cumulatively have earned $131 million in wages. In the future, Zip Code plans on opening a brick-and-mortar place in Seaford to continue to serve students in Southern Delaware and is exploring a medical assistant program.
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Patrick Callahan
LabWare
With partners, Patrick Callahan developed CompassRed in 2012, as
a company to analyze data to help guide an organization’s future with
new strategies. The company was repeatedly named to Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies. In March 2022, CompassRed was acquired by LabWare, a veteran laboratory information management provider headquartered in Alapocas. The transition made Callahan the head of LabWare’s data analytics and product development firm with a global reach. Earlier in his career Callahan was a co- founder of The Archer Group, a digital agency and held positions at Andersen Consulting, Hesta Data Systems, and Proximitree.
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Patrick Callihan
Tech Impact
Tech Impact was founded in collaboration with Microsoft as part
of the NPower Network, national nonprofit on a mission to move people from poverty to the middle class by training youth from underserved communities and veterans in a range of tech skills and placing them in quality jobs. In 2013, it rebranded and became independent. Tech Impact is a national workforce training program, but has extensive operations in Delaware and Philadelphia, as well as a training center in Las Vegas. In the last three years, Patrick Callihan has overseen the acquisition of two firms: the Delaware Data Innovation Lab and Message digital marketing agency.
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Stephanie Eldridge
Code Differently
The technology workforce is about
35% women, with 3% Black women and 1% of Hispanic women. But
with Code Differently, a coding education program that focuses on underrepresented people, that stat
is flipped. Classes are 98% people of color and about 40% are women. Code Differently CEO Stephanie Eldridge was working as an executive director at JPMorgan Chase at the Delaware Tech Center before she met Tariq Hook and was inspired to make a difference in tech deserts and workforce training. During COVID-19, the state granted funds to Code Differently to develop
a 20-week program to quickly reskill adult Delawareans. Today, 95% of college participants of Code Differently programs go on to jobs in the tech sector.
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82 DELAWARE 222 | DelawareBusinessTimes.com
