As America changes, the tech industry has been slow to keep up. Over half of children born today are people of color, and 1 in 4 have an immigrant parent. Yet Silicon Valley and the U.S. tech economy do not look like our diverse population. That results in a lot of missed opportunities for all of us.
Code the Dream recognizes that people from immigrant backgrounds and communities of color have great ideas and will play a huge part in our 21st century economy. Already immigrants are more than twice as likely to start their own business, and those businesses create over 25% of new jobs.
Can you imagine if more people with that drive knew how to code? Together we can make it happen.
Meet the Team
Ramiro Rodriguez
Co-Founder, CTO
Ramiro Rodriguez
Co-Founder, CTO
Ramiro knows about the American Dream and he knows about coding. Originally from Mexico, Ramiro moved to the United States as a child and excelled in school. He majored in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Cornell and later returned for a Masters in Computer Science. Together with an amazing team of top-notch volunteer instructors and mentors, he leads Code the Dream's teaching and project-based learning.
Daisy Magnus-Aryitey
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Director
Daisy Magnus-Aryitey
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Director
Daisy moved to the U.S. from Ghana at the age of 4. She lived in New Mexico, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York before settling in North Carolina in 2009. She wrote her first line of code in a Code the Dream class, and within a year was working as a full-time software developer at Duke University. Daisy has played many roles at CTD, from a student in the initial CTD pilot to CTD Director to Board Vice-Chair. She has a Master’s in Education Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship from UNC-Chapel Hill.
Dan Rearick
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Director
Dan Rearick
Co-Founder, Co-Executive Director
Dan took his own coding baby steps alongside the first Code the Dream participants. Having worked alongside low-income and immigrant communities since 2008, he was honored by the White House in 2013 as a Champion of Change. Dan co-founded Code the Dream together with Ramiro Rodriguez and Daisy Magnus-Aryitey, and is honored to work with an incredible team towards a shared vision of a more just and innovative world. Dan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School.
Lori Fernald Khamala
Director of Programs
Lori Fernald Khamala
Director of Programs
Lori Fernald Khamala has been involved with immigrant and farmworker organizing and advocacy in North Carolina for 20 years. She is passionate about building community rooted in social justice, equity, and collaboration. Lori joined the Code the Dream team in 2019 to strengthen new and existing relationships with nonprofit, education, business, and government partners. She loves working with CTD's professional and student developers to identify innovative ways using tech to build a more just and inclusive world.
Pam Bash
Director of Development
Pam Bash
Director of Development
Pam has worked in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors and brings over 20 years of experience to her role in corporate, foundation and individual fundraising for Code The Dream. A native New Yorker and avid traveller, she jumped at the opportunity to live and work abroad teaching English in Turkey, Russia and Morocco. After 10 years, she finally returned to the US and eventually moved to North Carolina, where she brought with her a passion for education, diversity and community. She joined Code The Dream in 2020 and looks forward to building solid funder partnerships to help create and inspire future generations of coders.
Lucy Martinez
Chief Operating Officer
Lucy Martinez
Chief Operating Officer
Lucy Martinez has a passion for social justice and equity and over 15 years of experience at non-profit organizations and government agencies in the areas of anti-poverty, anti-hunger, and housing programs. At Code the Dream, Lucy uses her operations and human resources experience to help us accomplish our goals. Lucy is an AmeriCorps VISTA alumna and is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Tom Rau
Director of Code the Dream Labs
Tom Rau
Director of Code the Dream Labs
Tom Rau has worked for startups and established organizations working in a variety of roles, ranging from product lead/manager to front-end development. At Code the Dream Tom helps develop the front-end curriculum as well as serves as a lead developer and mentor to Code the Dream Labs interns.
Alex Rodriguez
Operations Manager, Web Developer
Alex Rodriguez
Operations Manager, Web Developer
Of all the folks at Code the Dream, Alex perhaps wears the most hats.
Cruz Nuñez
Senior Developer, Mentor
Cruz Nuñez
Senior Developer, Mentor
Cruz got his start in the very first Code the Dream cohort. He's a fast learner, a creative problem-solver and just wicked smart -- all things that make him an excellent software developer. He's also the sort of helpful guy who hears that a friend is struggling with some tedious task, and then decides to code them an app over the weekend. He's a good guy to know. Cruz is also a gifted and patient mentor, and we're very glad to have him helping new Code the Dreamers get their start.
Andrea Hernandez Guzman
Senior Developer, Mentor
Andrea Hernandez Guzman
Senior Developer, Mentor
Andrea moved to the U.S from Mexico when she was a year old. She started taking Code the Dream classes in 2017 right after finishing up High School. She focuses on building fast and beautiful web and mobile applications. Ultimately, she enjoys building cool things that can help people.
Justin Laidlaw
Engagement Manager
Justin Laidlaw
Engagement Manager
Justin is a life-long learner and native of Durham, North Carolina. He has an A.A. from Durham Technical Community College, and a B.A. in Journalism from North Carolina Central University. For six years, he worked as second-in-command at Durham-based clothing and lifestyle brand RUNAWAY before venturing into freelance multimedia production. In 2020, Justin started his own creative storytelling business called Buddy Ruski. He is passionate about the power of stories and how they connect us as humans.
Mary Alice Moore
Class Coordinator
Mary Alice Moore
Class Coordinator
Mary Alice was fortunate to find Code the Dream while working on her Associate's Degree in Web Design. After participating in their classes, she joined the intern team in August 2019. The following winter she became a proud first-time mommy. Her beautiful family grew, she recently completed her degree, and her wonderful work family stuck by her, so she is back in a new role with Code the Dream as our Class Coordinator. She feels very honored to be helping students and future interns join the Code the Dream family, build their skills, and brighten their futures just like she did.
Chuck Anderson
Developer, Mentor
Chuck Anderson
Developer, Mentor
Chuck was born in NY and graduated from Adelphi University with a BS in Physics and a BA in philosophy. He joined Code the Dream in the 2018 cohort for Ruby on Rails. Since then he has tackled a wide range of topics from marketplaces to cryptocurrencies and enjoys learning new and varied solutions. He has filled many roles from intern to lead developer and looks forward to the growth and challenges ahead
Elsabeth Kidane
Junior Developer
Elsabeth Kidane
Junior Developer
Elsabeth was born in Ethiopia and raised in Eritrea. She earned her BA in Computer Science in 2011 and mainly focused on Cisco networking and computer maintenance. But she always dreamed of being a developer so in 2017 she came to the US to continue her education. Unfortunately, she was not able to obtain her master’s because it was very expensive to go to the university. Luckily, she got the chance to learn at Code the Dream for free. She started her course at Code the Dream in September 2019 and began her apprenticeship in December 2019 where she was able to work on real projects and learn to build both web apps and mobile apps. At the end of 2020, she become a proud first-time mom. She enjoys learning new things, in her spare time, she is studying UX design and tries to learn new tools that will help her to strengthen her knowledge.
Narayan Rai
Junior Developer
Narayan Rai
Junior Developer
Narayan grew up in Nepal and studied in India before coming to the States in 2008. He received a B.S. from the University of North Bengal, India, in Physics and Mathematics. He also received his two years degree in database management from a local community college. Narayan learned about Code the Dream from one of his teachers in school and he took advantage of the free coding classes offered. He has worked on various projects mainly focused on social changes such as improving the life of migrant farmworkers. In his free time, Narayan enjoys listening to music, helping his wife with gardening, and going on a bike ride with his two young daughters.
Rachel Frenkel
Senior Developer, Mentor
Rachel Frenkel
Senior Developer, Mentor
Rachel majored in Computer Science at Tufts University in Boston before vowing to only live in warmer places. With that in mind, she moved to California where she worked with various tech companies as a web developer, and in 2019 moved to southern Mexico. She believes strongly in the power of programming and was looking to find a way to use that to make a positive impact. She was lucky enough to find Code the Dream and be able to join this incredible organization and works from Mexico as a developer and mentor for CTD.
Reid Russom
Programs Associate
Reid Russom
Programs Associate
Reid first came to Code the Dream in 2019 as an intern with Johnson Service Corps, an intentional community in Durham, NC. While working as a middle school English teacher, Reid remained a part of the CTD community and returned in 2022 as Programs Associate. His past experience in higher ed admissions and teaching made him passionate about community building and leadership in change-making organizations. When he’s not at work, Reid loves being outdoors, cooking, and settling down with a good book.
Anne Ezzell
Project Manager
Anne Ezzell
Project Manager
Anne Ezzell grew up in a small town in Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art. Her experience includes working as director of public relations for a statewide arts non-profit and as project manager for software development under state and federal contract. She finds meaning working for organizations that increase opportunities for others, and is honored to be part of the Code the Dream team.
Denilson “Dee” Villeda Velasquez
Junior Developer
Denilson “Dee” Villeda Velasquez
Junior Developer
Denilson "Dee" Villeda Velasquez, a DACA recipient, was born in a small town in Ocotepeque, Honduras, and currently resides in NC. At the young age of 13, Dee explored and fell in love with coding. Shortly after HS, he was eager to pursue his tech career so he applied and was accepted into Code The Dream’s first Full Stack remote class in the summer of 2020. Shortly after classes ended, he began his apprenticeship. Since being part of the team, he has worked on different exciting projects and helped many apprentices/peers along the way. In 2022, he was honored to accept the Junior Developer staff role. His other hobbies include traveling, nature hikes, always cooking in the kitchen, having an eye for art, and new tech inventions, and being obsessed with anything space tech. He hopes to continue inspiring, uniting, and positively influencing the Latinx and tech community through his projects, one line of code at a time!
Omer Yariv
Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellow
Omer Yariv
Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellow
Omer has worked in tech since the days of GeoCities, when <blink> was considered an appropriate HTML tag. He has since worked and freelanced at multiple startup companies as a Software Engineer, Team Leader, and Product Manager. Omer is also the father of two amazing girls, an avid traveler, and will go to great lengths (literally and figuratively) to discover new food.
Ricky Leung
Strategic Initiatives Lead
Ricky Leung
Strategic Initiatives Lead
Ricky Leung (he, him) has a background in visual communications, design, and website development with a multimedia journalism degree from UNC Chapel Hill. For the past decade, he has worked with grassroots immigrant and Asian communities in North Carolina to advocate for immigrant and voter rights through socially just policy changes. Ricky looks forward to working with the CTD team on tools that will help empower community-based advocacy.
Alton Michaux
Junior Developer
Alton Michaux
Junior Developer
Alton got his start at Code the Dream with zero coding experience in the fall of 2020. A father of 4 who had spent a lot of time as an industrial chemical worker, Alton was ready to make a transition into a bright and sustainable career as a web developer and never looked back. As a junior backend developer, he works as a mentor and student and is just one of many critical parts that help bring Code the Dream ideas into reality.
Nicole Villalpando
Junior Developer
Nicole Villalpando
Junior Developer
Nicole grew up in a small town nicknamed the "BBQ Capital of Texas". She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook 'Em) with a B.S. in Communication Studies and a B.A. in Psychology and began her career at a large healthcare nonprofit. In December 2020 she finally took the leap to learn to code and to say it's been life-changing is an understatement. She loves Code the Dream's mission and the opportunities it creates and is excited to grow with them. Outside of work you can find her attending random events around Austin, gardening, or hanging out with her dog and husband.
Frank Stepanski
Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellow
Frank Stepanski
Senior Developer Tech Equity Fellow
Frank grew up in Philadelphia and has stayed local receiving his Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science with a minor in education. His experience includes working at educational institutions, startups and large corporate as an educator, manager, and developer. His love is mentoring and helping others reach new career goals.
He has taste tested every Philly cheesesteak (before he stopped eating red meat), loves to daydream about sports cars he can’t afford, enjoys traveling over big oceans, playing volleyball and buying too many toys for his cat baby.
Board of Directors
Alex Boakye | Vice President, Solutions Development, SAS.
Aris Buinevicius | Chair | Formerly Co-Founder / CTO, ChannelAdvisor.
Ana Maria Echeverri | Treasurer | Expert Labs Technical Training Program Director, IBM.
David Laboy | Diversity, Equity & Employee Relations, Volvo Group
Daisy Magnus-Aryitey | Co-Executive Director, Code the Dream.
Carlos Pignataro | CTO, Customer Experience, Cisco.
Manuel Ramos Gonzalez | Software Engineer, IBM.
Dan Rearick | Co-Executive Director, Code the Dream.
Susan Rohol | SVP and Chief Privacy Officer, WarnerMedia.
Jennifer Zachary | General Counsel, Merck.