Author | AI Expert | Investor | Entrepreneur

Cheryl Contee is Chief Innovation Officer at BrightWorksAI.com. She's a pioneering technology entrepreneur and digital transformation expert. Cheryl is renowned as a trailblazing mission-driven startup founder. She inspires audiences globally as a leading voice on innovation & impact. She has co-authored a bestselling new book called "AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause" sharing insights from 57 AI experts helping nonprofit leaders embrace new tech. Cheryl Contee was CEO at The Impact Seat Foundation which is working to create a world in which women can succeed as business leaders. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success. She's the host of the podcast Make The Most. Cheryl was a co-founder of social marketing software Attentive.ly at Blackbaud, the first tech startup with a black female founder on board in history to be acquired by a NASDAQ-traded company. Her company Fission helped write the early source code for Crowdtangle, earning sweat equity in a successful social enterprise startup acquired by Facebook in Dec 2016. Cheryl is proud to be a co-founder of the tech inclusion initiative #YesWeCode (now DreamCorps Tech). She was the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics writing as “Jill Tubman” on the leading top black audience targeted blog during the 2008 and 2012 election cycles. Cheryl has been listed among The Influencers 50 in Campaigns and Elections magazine. Cheryl was named as an Affiliate of Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. She was inducted into the first The Root 100 list of established and emerging African-American leaders. Huffington Post included her as one of the Top 27 Female Founders in Tech to Follow on Twitter in 2011, as did Black Enterprise. Fast Company named her one of their 2010 Most Influential Women in Tech. Cheryl has been featured in many media outlets including Washington Post, New York Times, Vanity Fair, San Francisco Mag, C-SPAN, Black Enterprise, BBC, MSNBC & CNN. She has served on numerous boards and advisory committees including New Media Ventures, Social Venture Circle, Center for Cultural Power, Hopewell Fund, Netroots Nation & Greenpeace USA. Books Highlighting Cheryl’s work Include: Keep Marching: How Every Woman Can Take Action by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner How to Be Black by Baratunde Thurston (NY Times Bestseller) Campaign Boot Camp 2.0 by Christine Pelosi Responsible Entrepreneur by Carol Sanford Happy Healthy Nonprofit by Beth Kanter