Reflections on Technology, Equity, and Community

Last spring, four entrepreneurs in public interest technology (PIT) stepped into a Stanford classroom not just as guest speakers, but as teachers and collaborators. Through CSRE 142C: Challenging the Status Quo: Social Entrepreneurship in Public Interest Technology, Alex Bernadotte (Beyond 12), Jaime-Alexis Fowler (Empower Work), Josh Nesbit (Medic), and Amanda Renteria (Code for America) joined faculty member Kathleen Kelly Janus to guide students in exploring how technology can serve communities and advance equity. This was the second year the Haas Center brought together its Distinguished Visitors Program and its Program on Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford (SEERS) to host multiple visitors to share their expertise on campus and co-teach the course. Read more about the Distinguished Visitors, watch the video of their panel event, and explore their reflections below.

Alex Bernadotte

The greatest gift of the program was the opportunity to be part of an extraordinary group of change-makers. A testament to that is that we're still connecting and getting together. It felt like a truly magical group because each of us brought unique expertise, a deep commitment, and a spirit of generosity and collaboration to our cohort. 

I knew Jaime-Alexis and Josh through Fast Forward already, but I met Amanda through the program, and it was so rich to learn alongside them. They expanded my own thinking about what it means to work in public-interest tech. I’m grateful to have been in a cohort where not only could we share, but we could also push and challenge each other. 

The benefit of the class is that students had the chance to hear from us and wrestle with real-world questions about how tech is currently being used and how it could be used responsibly and ethically—a perspective difficult to come by in textbooks. The class also caught us in a moment of humility and curiosity; we didn’t have all the answers because of how rapidly the world around us was changing. We were just as perplexed and disturbed as our students. The principles about social entrepreneurship on which the class was built were changing in real time. With our students, we were honest about the things we're grappling with, what we're pushing on, what is currently true, and our hopes for the future. 

This program gives faculty the opportunity to connect with practitioners in ways they might not otherwise. Stanford has a lot of big ideas, built on research and theories, and faculty are doing incredible research, but this program is an excellent opportunity to bridge theory and practice. It gives faculty the chance to ask, “What do these theories mean when they meet practice on the ground?”

Stanford does an excellent job of sparking student interest at the intersection of tech and social good. The Haas Center is able to get students ready to engage in this work through a supportive environment, and Stanford is a leader in theoretical frameworks. Students can see that Stanford has created a body of evidence about what PIT should look like to serve the public good.

The next step, and the real opportunity, is to ensure that this work is not confined to a single program or set of classes, but becomes a mindset woven across disciplines. Every student who leaves Stanford should be prepared to ask not only can we build this? but also should we, and for whom? I saw a sliver of this as a Distinguished Visitor, but I don't know if we're inspiring students to not just ask can we? but should we? And the most responsible and ethical part of the question, arguably most importantly, for whom?

Stanford has been a leader in elevating the field, providing students with frameworks to dream big and tackle society’s most complex challenges. My own path is proof of that impact. But the future of social entrepreneurship requires pairing boldness with humility. The opportunity is to ensure that entrepreneurial frameworks are grounded in equity and authentic partnership with communities so that innovation does not only disrupt, but it also repairs. That takes a different mindset, and it does seem like Stanford is poised to bridge disruption with repair. 

I loved my students, Kalissa, Sarahi and Nathalie. They did so much work and we are still using what they built during the class in our work. Our project was how GenAI can be used responsibly and ethically to serve first-gen students, and the tool they built was grounded in the students' lived experiences and student voices, which is a gift because that's what Beyond 12 is also built on. The students were my moment of joy. They reminded me why I so deeply believe in this next generation of leaders and why it's important for us to step out of the way and let them lead. When innovation is led by those closest to the challenges, and the students in my class were so proximate to the work, it is so powerful. They produced work that was of such high quality that is baked into what we do now. 

All of us Distinguished Visitors are still working with our students, some through Cardinal Quarter and others through the class, and the deep connections we’ve made with students are remarkable.

The Haas Center staff, and Katie Avila in particular, made this experience so joyful. We were so well taken care of and I knew I could go to Katie about anything, and if she didn’t have the answer, she would find someone who did. She continued to show up in the spirit of collaboration and care. 

Gratitude to Mimi Haas for the support. We are mindful of the fact that there are a lot of people in this political environment who are retracting their support for programs like these, but Mimi is leaning in.

It was in the informal connections and moments that the magic happened, made possible by the community of care created for us.

Jaime-Alexis Fowler

Being part of the cohort with Amanda, Alex, and Josh was deeply meaningful. Not only was it special to have space with them to reflect and learn, particularly at a tough national moment, it was powerful for the students and the campus interactions to have our different experiences and perspectives together.

It was a huge learning opportunity for me to better understand how the campus works, how students engage with opportunities around them, how faculty provide connectivity for students (as well as what their research focuses are), and how Stanford engages with community partners.

It's wonderful to see how Stanford looks for ways to offer students insights beyond traditional tech. I didn't see that as incorporated into the class as it could have been, but I think given that the main focus was social entrepreneurship, that makes sense.

It's incredible to see all the ways that social entrepreneurship shows up across campus. I was floored by all the opportunities that students have to engage and learn, from the Haas Center to the dorm living situation.

Amanda, Alex, Josh, and I had a number of incredible experiences together. One of my favorites was a panel discussion with a class that was focused on data. We were able to do off the cuff Q&A with students about career paths and put into context the skills they were building towards social impact. It was incredibly energizing. 

I was also deeply appreciative of the time that we had together between working with students and meeting faculty to dig into challenges that we were all navigating given the current political and economic environment. That's extraordinarily rare in the social impact space and enabled us to forge deep relationships that will definitely continue forward—in  fact we're all going to dinner tomorrow night!

Grateful to Mimi Haas, the Haas Center staff, and the campus for offering this type of opportunity to bridge real world practice with skill building and learning.

Josh Nesbit

This experience led to relationships that will be lifelong friendships and deep collaborations. It was a truly special group of people. Driving down to Palo Alto with Jaime-Alexis was honestly a highlight of every week! 

The Haas team brought so much rigorous care to their support of our cohort. We felt this from the first to last minute of the experience.

I was in seminars, group meals, 1:1 mentoring sessions, and community meetings every half hour I was on campus! Once the word spread that we were at the Haas Center on Thursdays, we were fully engaged with the community. I am so grateful to have been able to freely give time and stories back to this diverse community, returning after 15 years. That was a true homecoming for me.

Stanford has the theorists. Also, the technical chops! Areas for growth include bringing in cutting-edge practitioners and making their journeys, projects, and ideas available to more of the student body. This is why the Distinguished Visitor Program is so critical. So often, PIT innovation happens on the edges of society, in place-based context, addressing real community needs—students were so eager to know that applying their skills to this kind of work was possible.

Stanford has made social entrepreneurship very approachable! This is a big change from when I was an undergrad 2005-2009. I think there are more opportunities to wrestle with the true messiness of it – imagine courses on moral philosophy, "design your life" but applied with a social justice lens, highly-technical applied [everything] across fields on campus, etc. We got into some of this in our course, but there are many depths to explore!

Immense gratitude to Mimi Haas for visionary gifts making this possible, Katie Avila for a magical experience, Kathleen Kelly Janus for her wisdom and grace, the students for their deep curiosity, and my fellow Distinguished Visitors for how they show up in the world!

Amanda Renteria

What an incredible time to be part of this class at Stanford University! The convergence of insights from students, faculty, Haas Center staff, and fellow civic tech leaders came at a pivotal moment when technology, social impact, government, and philanthropy are intersecting in unprecedented ways. This comprehensive perspective helped me understand what it truly means to witness and participate in the most significant transformation of civic technology in my lifetime. No better place to do this than at Stanford!

I hope we were able to provide three essential learning experiences:

1. Leadership in the modern social enterprise landscape: A real sense of what it means to lead in social enterprise tech today, navigating a post-COVID world where a new generation of philanthropists is emerging and technology is evolving faster than ever before. I hope we exposed the complexities and opportunities that define contemporary social impact work.
2. Leadership during historical transition: A rare window into how leaders think, talk, wonder, and act during a significant transitional moment in history. The rules of the past have fundamentally changed, and we find ourselves at the beginning of this transformation as leaders. It's extraordinary to capture authentic stories, real-time decisions, and thoughtful discussions during such a pivotal period for our society.
3. Community, joy, and hope in uncertain times: Some much-needed joy, community, and inspiration at a time when the world feels uncertain and we question whether we're headed in a "for good" direction. Through our work discussions, I hope we demonstrated that great ideas and dedicated leaders still exist and that, together, we will successfully navigate this period of change, just as we have weathered transformations before.

Stanford has built an extraordinary ecosystem for public interest technology work. The breadth of resources is remarkable, and Katie seems to know every single one of them! What makes Stanford truly special is the desire to do good at scale is embedded in our institutional DNA. This isn't just rhetoric; it's a genuine commitment that permeates research, teaching, and community engagement.

Stanford's tech resources are incredibly powerful but fragmented and difficult to navigate for practitioners who need them most. The opportunity is to create a unified, accessible platform that consolidates Stanford's technology assets—research, tools, expertise, partnerships—into one easily discoverable resource for social impact practitioners. This could serve as a bridge between Stanford's capabilities and real-world application.

The transformative potential of Stanford's public interest technology work often remains invisible to everyday people who aren't deeply connected to Stanford or the tech ecosystem. There is an opportunity to develop clearer, more compelling messaging and demonstration projects that show concrete benefits for regular people. We need to translate complex technological solutions into stories and outcomes that resonate with everyone. Across the campus, we must begin to show the public benefit in all we do at Stanford. The unique vantage point of the Haas Center is extremely valuable in this effort.

As technological change accelerates, we face a critical challenge—how do we ensure that the most powerful tools in human history serve everyone, not just those with access to elite institutions? Stanford has the opportunity to lead in creating technology that helps all people become more united, caring, and able to reach their full potential. This means designing with equity from the start, building bridges to underserved communities, and ensuring that as the world changes faster, we bring everyone along rather than leaving people behind.

The question isn't just how to improve what Stanford does, but how to leverage Stanford's unique position to model what responsible, inclusive innovation looks like at scale. This could position Stanford as not just a leader in public interest technology, but as a beacon for how elite institutions can use their resources to strengthen rather than divide our society. I believe the combo of tech and entrepreneurship is what makes us so unique to step into this moment of transition for academic institutions.

Every aspect of this experience exceeded my expectations in different ways. Shared meals became the backdrop of engaging conversations—sitting across from boundary-pushing students who asked questions I hadn't considered, sharing ideas with incredibly smart staff members who are so committed to public service, and learning from Kathleen Kelly Janus and professors and researchers whose expertise runs remarkably deep. These weren't polite academic exchanges; they were the kind of conversations that shift how you see problems and possibilities.

Watching Kathleen's leadership throughout this experience was particularly inspiring. Her passion for the class and this work isn't performative, it's genuine and infectious. You can see it in how she facilitates discussions, how she connects different perspectives, and how she creates space for both big ideas and practical solutions.

For me, all of this added up to exactly what I needed right now. In a moment when the world feels like it's redefining itself in difficult and sometimes frightening ways, this experience reminded me that there are still places where brilliant, caring people come together to tackle hard problems with both intellectual rigor and genuine heart.

Stanford has always been a special place to me for countless reasons. This experience has only strengthened that bond and reaffirmed what I've long believed: Stanford possesses a rare combination of intellectual rigor, innovative spirit, and genuine commitment to improving the world. I'm honored to contribute to that mission and stand ready to help however I can to ensure this vision becomes reality.

The Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor Program invites local entrepreneurs and changemakers to campus during winter and spring quarters to co-teach a class and meet with members of the Stanford community. Read more about the program.