Elissa Shevinsky is an American technology executive, entrepreneur,

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

expert, public speaker, and author.

Education

Shevinsky attended Benjamin Cardozo High School, before studying for a Political Theory major at Williams College, where she also took classes in Computer Science, graduating in 2001.

Early career

In 2010, Shevinsky defended her company against ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', as co-owner of Neighborhoodies, over the use of the "New York Herald Tribune" logo on T-shirts. Shevinsky argued that the trademark had been abandoned. In 2012, she founded two NYC-focused dating sites, MakeOut Labs and JoinJspot. Shevinsky co-founded Glimpse, an encrypted photo and video-sharing app, with Pax Dickinson in 2013. At Glimpse, Shevinksy served as chief executive of the company. In 2015 Shevinsky was funded by MACH37 for Jekudo Privacy Company, co-organized information security conference SecretCon, and edited '' Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture''. In 2016, Shevinsky joined Brave as Head of Product.

Current career

Shevinsky has spoken and written on enterprise security policy. She spoke on the potential for social media to influence election outcomes at HOPE XI. Shevinsky continues to be an organizer of SecretCon. In 2018 Shevinsky spoke on information security at universities and infosec conferences. She served as chief operating officer of SoHo Token Labs, building developer tools for smart contracts. In 2019 Shevinsky started serving as CEO at Faster Than Light. Shevinsky taught a course titled "Introduction to Tech Entrepreneurship" at the Computer Science Department of Williams College."

Honors

'' Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture'' was listed by Inc. Magazine as one of the 100 best business books of 2015. In 2018, Shevinsky was named "Woman of the Decade" by

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

in a speech where she announced she wanted to lead the way for the development and protection of privacy for the following decade.

Personal life

Shevinsky advocates for niceness and inclusivity in the workplace, especially within the tech and security industries. In a 2015 post on harassment and trolling in Silicon Valley, Shevinsky wrote: "I'd like to see less harassment. That's my position. Less harassment, for everyone. I do hope this isn't a controversial statement." When

James Damore "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber", commonly referred to as the Google memo, is an internal memo, dated July 2017, by US-based Google engineer James Damore () about Google's culture and diversity policies. The memo and Google's subsequent di ...

was fired by Google, Shevinsky was widely quoted saying that speech "questioning the technical qualifications of people based on race or gender" was potentially within the purview of

Title VII The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requi ...

of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. As a Press Lead for the 2018 HOPE conference in NYC, Shevinsky called for stronger enforcement of the Code of Conduct.

Bibliography

* '' Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture:''

OR Books OR Books is a New York City-based independent publishing house founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson in 2009. The company sells digital and print-on-demand books directly to the customer and focuses on creative promotion through traditional med ...

, 2015. * Social Entrepreneurship: How Businesses Can Transform Society: Praeger, 2012.

Film

Shevinsky appears in the documentary '' CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap''. She is also a cast member in the documentary ''Silenced''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shevinsky, Elissa 1979 births Living people 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American business writers Women business writers American computer businesspeople American feminist writers American technology chief executives American technology writers American women chief executives American women computer scientists American computer scientists Writers from San Francisco Activists from California American women non-fiction writers Benjamin N. Cardozo High School alumni Williams College alumni 21st-century American businesswomen