Meet
Adriana
Adriana Gascoigne is a globally recognized entrepreneur, marketing and nonprofit executive, and strategic leader at the intersection of technology, media, social impact, and justice reform. She is the founder and former CEO of Girls in Tech, the San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology and empowering women and girls through education, community, and career advancement in STEM. She is also the author of Tech Boss Lady and serves as a board member of Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School.
More than a decade ago, Adriana experienced discrimination and harassment as the lone female executive at a Silicon Valley startup. Motivated by that experience, she founded Girls in Tech to create pathways, opportunities, and advocacy for women entering and advancing in STEM industries. Under her leadership, the organization grew into a global movement with more than 50 chapters worldwide and a community that impacted over 500,000 women. Through hundreds of educational programs, events, mentorship initiatives, and partnerships, Girls in Tech became one of the most recognized organizations championing diversity, equity, and inclusion in technology.
Tech Boss Lady
During her tenure, Adriana led the organization through significant growth and transformation, raising more than $25 million in grants, sponsorships, and philanthropic support. Her leadership helped influence policy discussions across corporate, government, and community sectors while creating impactful curriculum, professional development programs, and leadership opportunities for women across all stages of their careers. Most recently, Adriana was selected to participate in MIT Sloan School of Management, an executive leadership program designed to advance diverse leaders driving meaningful organizational and social change.
Adriana most recently served as Executive Director of URL Media, where she led strategic growth initiatives, revenue development, partnerships, and operational expansion for one of the nation’s leading networks of multicultural-owned media organizations. In this role, she worked closely with media founders, philanthropic organizations, corporate partners, and civic institutions to strengthen independent journalism, expand equitable media representation, and build sustainable business models that amplify underrepresented voices and communities.
She currently serves as Director of Development for the Tennessee Innocence Project, where she leads strategic partnerships, fundraising, and organizational growth initiatives that advance criminal justice reform and support the exoneration of wrongfully convicted individuals. Her work focuses on cultivating innovative revenue streams across philanthropy, corporate partnerships, grant funding, donor stewardship, special events, marketing, community engagement, and advocacy to expand the organization's reach, strengthen its impact, and drive meaningful systemic change.
No stranger to building brands and scaling organizations, Adriana has held leadership and executive roles with companies including Ogilvy & Mather, Interpublic Group, SecondMarket, Indiegogo, Jam City, hi5, and numerous startups spanning technology, gaming, media, and social innovation. She has also served as a Mosaic Changemakers Fellow, a member of LXCouncil, and an advisor to organizations including Change.org and Involver.
Adriana holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in Organizational Studies and a minor in Communications from University of California, Davis. Throughout her career, she has remained committed to building inclusive ecosystems, elevating underrepresented voices, and creating transformational opportunities across technology, media, marketing and social impact sectors.