May 23, 2019

Exclusive: Code For America founder plans to step down

Ina Fried

Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka, speaking at SXSW — Photo: Steve Rogers Photography/Getty Images for SXSW

Code for America executive director Jennifer Pahlka, who has led the group since its inception, plans to step down from that post once a new leader for the group is found.

What's next: Code for America has hired a search firm to find its next executive director. Pahlka said she plans to keep working on Code For America and related efforts and is not looking for another job in the business or nonprofit sector.

“That is not going to happen," Pahlka told Axios. "I have a very very full plate.”

Pahlka, who founded the group a decade ago, said that she wants to find the equivalent of a "growth CEO" to help the organization increase the scale of its efforts. She likened it to when Mitchell Baker hired John Lilly to run Mozilla.

Under Pahlka's leadership the group has undertaken a number of projects, the most recent of which has been working with counties to help automatically expunge the records of people convicted of marijuana offenses.

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Exclusive: Code For America founder plans to step down

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