SXSW Hall of Fame: Kimberly Bryant
The Forrest Four-Cast: January 27, 2019
The 2019 inductee to the SXSW Hall of Fame is Kimberly Bryant (pictured above). She will be honored as part of the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards ceremony on the evening Monday, March 11.
Kimberly Bryant is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Girls CODE, a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing girls of color (ages 7–17) to the field of technology and computer programming with a concentration on entrepreneurial concepts. Bryant has enjoyed a successful 20+ year professional career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries as an Engineering Manager in a series of technical leadership roles for various Fortune 100 companies such as Genentech, Merck, and Pfizer.
Since 2011, Bryant has helped Black Girl CODE grow from a local organization serving only the Bay Area to an international non-profit organization with chapters in seven US cities as well as in Johannesburg, South Africa. Black Girls CODE now serves over 2000 African/African-American, Latina, and Native American girls.
Past SXSW Hall of Fame inductees include Eli Pariser (2018), Kara Swisher (2017), Baratunde Thurston (2016), Tamara Hudgins (2015), Joi Ito (2014), danah boyd (2013) and Jeffrey Zeldman (2012).
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
