Kelauni Cook was recently named one of “The 12 People To Meet in 2018” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Magazine, was featured in The Incline Magazine’s “Who’s Next in Tech”, and was recently featured in The Huffington Post for her presence in the international blockchain space. Kelauni is the Founder and Executive Director of Black Tech Nation (BTN), a social good organization working to create and grow Pittsburgh’s first black tech ecosystem. She is also the Co-Founder of Distributed49, a blockchain education and consulting company housed in Carnegie Mellon University’s Project Olympus., which also produces the city’s largest blockchain meetup group – “Straight Up Blockchain”.

Kelauni is a graduate of the 1st cohort of Academy Pittsburgh Coding Boot Camp and a former software developer for The Washington Post. She also co-created Academy Pittsburgh’s Beta Builders, which is now partnering with Black Tech Nation to deliver coding programs to Pittsburgh Public High Schools and youth organizations across the region with a high focus on minority, female, and immigrant students. Kelauni previously served as a blockchain tech adviser to Adbank, an advertising company out of Toronto, and has recently consulted for Google, CMU, and MIT on an unconscious bias software for K-12 computer science teachers.

Kelauni sits on both the City Council’s Startup and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board and the City of Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission.  She is also an adviser to Mayor Peduto’s Office on equitable economic development strategies that support the region’s disinvested communities. In her spare time, Kelauni enjoys traveling, running, trying new foods, and happily judging callers on C-SPAN.