#CodingIcon: Tracy Chou - Programmer and Diversity Advocate

by Quymbee Chen October 5, 2017

#CodingIcon is a mini-series from Jewelbots highlighting the amazing women building the things we use everyday.

Tracy Chou is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and diversity advocate. From 2011 to 2016, Tracy was one of the first 15 employees at Pinterest, working as an engineer and tech lead. She has played a critical role in engineering the company’s website and launching its mobile site.

Now Tracy is most well-known for her work pushing for diversity in tech. She is a leading voice for women in the industry, using data to call attention to the poor diversity and representation, allowing her to build a strong case for change.

Tracy was one of the first 15 employees at Pinterest!

Full Name: Tracy Chou

Fun Fact: There is a bag named after her! Tara&Co's "The Tracy"

Github: Triketora

What's your position at work?

Currently exploring new opportunities, so no official affiliation at the moment!

Who are/were your role models?

Her mom, Megan Smith

Tracy first wrote very basic code in second or third grade (PC Logo) but didn't really learn to code until high school in an introductory computer science class.

She graduated from Stanford with an M.S. in Computer Science and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, where she was a Terman Scholar and Mayfield Fellow and elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.

Tracy loved being able to build things that she and other people could use!

While working at Quora, she help build a product from scratch, on the ground floor when there were only four other employees at the time. At that point, it really hit home how powerful it was to bring things into existence.