IntraCity Innovation Awards given to eight city residents

PROVIDENCE – Eight individuals were presented with IntraCity Innovation Awards during HackPVD, a three-day event held earlier this month at the Providence Public Library.
Billed as the city’s first official hackathon, HackPVD was presented by IntraCity Geeks and Mayor Jorge O. Elorza. It featured computer programmers of various skill levels from high schools, colleges and corporations from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
At HackPVD, teams were formed to work on projects intended to make Providence “a better place in which to live, work and play,” explained Arnell Milhouse, creator and co-organizer of HackPVD.
Milhouse, of IntraCity Geeks, said the award winners were selected based on criteria that included being “vanguards and catalysts for creating innovative programs that increase interest in [science, technology, engineering and math] among underserved students and/or young adults,” increasing diversity of the tech workforce and creating a STEM jobs pipeline.
“The IntraCity Innovation Awards are laser-focused on individuals and their organizations who are doubling-down on Rhode Island’s single greatest opportunity for long-term success – technology. Dozens of Providence-sized cities throughout the country are undergoing a high-tech age of enlightenment,” Milhouse said in a statement. “Furthermore, future outcomes are becoming more and more binary and the bottom line is that cities that don’t think like startups are going to be shocked and disappointed at where they end up. Consequently, these award winners are innovators who are pointing Providence in the right direction.”

The recipients are:

  • Hilary Salmons, executive director, Providence After School Alliance
  • Rudolph Moseley, executive director, TIMES2 STEM Academy
  • Charles Watson, assistant director – minority recruitment and retention, University of Rhode Island
  • Shandi Hanna, Rhode Island representative, LaunchCode
  • Lauren Tracey, Rhode Island Representative, LaunchCode
  • Shannon Lake, teen educator, Providence Public Library
  • Damian Ewens , director, TechHire RI
  • Gwen Rodriguez, manager, TechHire_RI

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