Vote now to help us win a $20K Community Leadership Award!

Your vote for one inspiring leader could create opportunities for  40 next-generation innovatorsSusan Mernit was nominated and been selected as one of the top 20 community leaders in the running for the Community Leadership Award from the San Francisco Foundation.  

For over 60 years, The San Francisco Foundation has recognized inspiring Bay Area leaders who are making daily contributions that are changing the way we work, think and live via the Community Leadership Awards. Past winners have included Michael Franti, Van Jones, Carlos Santana, Alice Waters, and a slew of other local leaders. This year, 7x7 and The San Francisco Foundation have joined forces to present the Hot 20 Community Choice Award.

The winner with the most votes will be featured in an advertorial spread in 7×7‘s Hot 20 Issue and their organization will receive a $20,000 award from The San Francisco Foundation. So, check out your top 20 finalists, get inspired, and then VOTE! 
Here's why we think Susan should win:Since Susan left Silicon Valley in 2008, she has been a serial social entrepreneur and capacity builder who has tirelessly and skillfully advocated and increased opportunities for underserved communities through journalism and tech.  In a few short years she's launched a number of successful projects that have moved the bar on inequity in the Bay Area:

• She was a co-founder of Oakland Local a non-profit hyper local news source giving a platform for under-reported voices in the City of Oakland, now with a readership of over 70,000 unique visitors a month
• She co-founded Live Work Oakland, a go-to resource that maps and promotes the burgeoning and highly diverse tech scene in Oakland with partnership of the Kapor Center for Social Impact.
• In 2010-2011 she founded Code for Oakland which was called "The Most Inclusive Hackathon Ever" by Forbes.com
• AND in 2012, she co-founded Hack the Hood, which teaches low-income youth of color how to launch tech careers by training them to build mobile-friendly websites for small mom-and-pop businesses and local non-profit organizations.  Hack the Hood has exploded over the past couple of months under Susan's collaborative leadership, winning a Top 4 spot in the Google Bay Area Impact Challenge, being invited to the White House for a Summit on how Tech can address issues for LGBT youth, and getting covered on NPR's All Tech Considered.  In the next year, we'll be growing rapidly to replicate the Hack the Hood model across the Bay Area so 5,000 youth get access to tech and soft skills training that put them on a path towards high-paying knowledge-worker careers.

Here at Hack the Hood, we all feel that Susan is an extraordinary person who inspires each of us to be our best through her inclusive and empowering leadership.  She is a passionate, innovative, and entrepreneurial changemaker, and we hope you will cast your vote to recognize her talent, and in the meantime helping us raise stipend funding for our youth.
VOTE NOW!