The Kapor Center is United and Ready

Eric Wingerter is Chief Communications Officer at the Kapor Center bringing with him more than 15 years experience in non-profit leadership, strategic communications, and digital strategy. Most recently, Eric served as the Vice President for Communications and Digital Media for the NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. In 2009, Eric founded the NAACP’s Digital Media Department to create and build the organization’s Email, social media and mobile messaging presence. Two years later, he took the reins of the NAACP’s traditional communications activities as well, overseeing the media and press relations for the organization nationwide. Previously, Eric worked as a DC-based nonprofit consultant, developing communications strategies for a wide range of clients including the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the Justice Policy Institute, Campaign for Youth Justice and the LGBT Bar Association. He has held leadership positions at non-profit advocacy organizations including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Defenders of Wildlife. Eric currently serves on the board of America’s Voice, the communications arm of the national immigration reform movement, and the Venezuelan Sounds Foundation which promotes the rich musical traditions of the Caribbean nation. He is the recipient of the Medgar W. Evers Award for Excellence, the NAACP’s highest national staff honor. A global traveler and outdoor enthusiast, Eric has hiked and camped in the mountains of Peru, Syria, Venezuela, Ethiopia, Turkey, Bolivia, Russia, Nicaragua and Switzerland, in addition to many corners of the Cascade Range in his beloved Pacific Northwest. Contact Eric Wingerter at eric [at] kaporcenter.org.

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In recent years, the Kapor Center has grown tremendously. We’ve built a terrific team that has both expanded our work and refined it at the same time: doubling down to identify and mitigate all the leaks along the tech pipeline.

This spring, we finalized a yearlong branding progress to better describe who we are and what we do. It’s an exciting new era for the Kapor Center. Our teams are more unified than ever before, even as we solidify our shared commitment to equity and opportunity in tech that underpins all of our efforts.

So What’s New?

First of all, we’re unifying all of our multi-faced work under the Kapor Center name. Where we previously existed as three entities — the Kapor Center for Social Impact, Kapor Capital, and the Level Playing Field Institute, all of our work is now together as the Kapor Center.

Our efforts are now organized across five focus areas: Education, Community Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion, Research, and Venture Capital. These focus areas work side by side, supporting each others’ work as they close gaps in the leaky tech pipeline, spur innovation and create lasting social impact beyond the tech community. Check out our new About Us page to see how each of our focus areas overlap and support each other.

The Level Playing Field Institute now goes by the name SMASH — the signature education program of the Kapor Center. For years, SMASH had existed as the primary program within LPFI, and today we’re making the SMASH brand bigger than ever, in recognition of its centrality to our work.

We’ve held on to our history in the Kapor Center’s new tagline: “Leveling the Playing Field in Tech”. It’s both a nod to our past and a laser focus on the mission that threads each of our focus areas.

Perhaps the biggest change has come with the look and feel of SMASH. All bright colors and clean lines and — most importantly — putting the stories of our amazing scholars at the center of everything we do. Check out the newly-launched SMASH.org website.

In short, our new structure and look reflect the reality that the Kapor Center is both bigger and more focused than ever before. We may have evolved, but our commitment to diversity in tech and making Oakland the home of tech done right is the same as ever.