Tarika Barrett is the CEO of Girls Who Code, an international nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology by inspiring, educating, and equipping young women with the computing skills to pursue 21st Century opportunities. Prior to becoming the CEO of the organization, she served as the Chief Operating Officer for the organization, where she led the organization’s free Summer Immersion Program and the After-School Clubs program, which has reached 500,000 girls around the world. In other previous roles, Barrett was the Chief Program Officer at iMentor where she led the organization’s efforts to build mentoring relationships that supported students from low-income communities in graduating high schools and succeeding to college. She has served on multiple boards such as CSforALL, Eskolta, AT&T’s Accelerator Advisory Board, and McGraw Hill. She currently serves as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, as Chair of the New York University Steinhardt Dean’s Advisory Board and others. She has garnered many accolades including being named one of Crain’s 50 Most Powerful Women in New York in 2021 and PoliticsNY and amNewYork Power Women List in 2022. Barrett earned her Bachelor’s of Art in political science from Brooklyn College, her Master’s of Art in deaf education from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in teaching and learning from New York University.