In this day and age of social media, bitcoin, and video streaming, it’s easy to forget what it was like to live on dial-up internet and use landlines. All of the things we have and take for granted today, however, began somewhere. And many of the services we use on our mobile devices are possible thanks to a Black woman named Lisa Gelobter
Lisa Gelobter is a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and executive in the field of technology. Gelobter was involved in the development of various groundbreaking internet innovations, including the animation used to make GIFs. During President Barack Obama’s administration, she was the Chief Digital Service Officer for the US Department of Education.
Beyond her birth date, little is known about Gelobter’s youth, including where she grew up. Her father was Polish and Jewish, and her mother was black and Caribbean.
At the age of 20, she graduated from Brown University with a computer science degree with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning. She then worked on numerous ground-breaking internet innovations, including Shockwave, a multimedia platform for video games, and Hulu, an online video streaming service.
Gelobter also served as BET Networks’ Chief Digital Officer. Gelobter, along with Brightcove, Joost, and The FeedRoom, is a pioneer in the development of video on the internet.
Gelobter accepted President Barack Obama’s invitation to become part of the newly founded United States Digital Service in 2015.
In that position, she assisted in the redesign of Healthcare.gov, the website used to enrol Americans in the Affordable Care Act that did not function properly during its original release. Gelobter improved the application process and reduced the number of separate pages on the site.
She later worked as the Department of Education’s Chief Digital Service Officer, where she was part of the team that developed the College Scorecard, a rating system that provides graduation rates, post-college incomes, and student debt levels for universities across the country.
Gelobter founded and became CEO of tEQuitable in 2016, a startup that provides an independent, confidential platform to address workplace bias, harassment, and discrimination.
Gelobter raised more than $2 million for the start-up company, making her one of only 34 Black women in history to raise $1 million in venture funding. She previously served on the New York Urban League’s STEM Advisory Board.
