Speakers and PIT Experts

The PIT-UN Summit engaged leaders from across Silicon Valley and beyond, including representatives from the corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors. Each speaker will share their unique perspective on the areas of impact today and where PIT is headed presidential post-election. In addition, students will learn new skills as they network with peers and mentors, as well as hear firsthand what a PIT career looks like in real time. Read some highlights from this year’s speakers.

Past Keynote Speaker

Ingrid LaFleur

Ingrid LaFleur is a curator, artist, afrofuture theorist, pleasure activist, and founder of The Afrofuture Strategies Institute (TASI).

As a former candidate for the mayor of Detroit, LaFleur has made it her mission to ensure equal distribution of the future. She explores the frontiers of social justice through emerging technologies, and new economies and modes of government to empower Black bodies and oppressed communities.

As a thought leader, social justice technologist, public speaker, teacher, and cultural advisor she has led conversations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDxBrooklyn, TEDxDetroit, Ideas City, New Museum (New York), Harvard University, Oxford University, and Museum of Modern Art (New York) among others. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR’s This American Life, and Hyperallergic to name a few.

Past Keynote Speaker

Julian Brave NoiseCat

At heart, Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, son, brother, nephew, cousin, godfather, friend and community member. Julian’s work cuts across the fields of journalism, policy, research, art, activism and advocacy, often engaging multiple disciplines at once.

Raised in a single-mother household in Oakland, California, Julian is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’Wat Nation of Mount Currie. He is the Vice President of Policy & Strategy with Data for Progress, a think tank, the Narrative Change Director of The Natural History Museum, an artist and activist collective, and a fellow at the Type Media Center, NDN Collective and the Center for Humans and Nature.

His journalism has been recognized by the judges of the Livingston Award as well as the Canadian National Magazine Awards and Digital Publishing Awards, among others. Julian wrote the foreword to the Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada and was invited to consult for the forthcoming UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ general comment on land rights. He has authored and edited many public policy briefs, memos, reports, polls, scorecards and other works, shaping progressive platforms like the Green New Deal.

After graduating high school, Julian interned for Representative Barbara Lee. He later studied history at Columbia University and the University of Oxford, where he was a Clarendon scholar. He led 350.org’s US policy work and was an Urban Fellow in the Commissioner’s Office of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development. In 2021, Julian was named to the TIME100 Next list of emerging leaders.