David Harris

Startup Advocate, City of Seattle

Seattle

David is the Startup Advocate for the City of Seattle's Office of Economic Development where he supports tech startups through the StartupSeattle program. He's also a part-time graduate student in the University of Washington's Human Centered Design and Engineering Master's Program. In the past, he's worked at Microsoft as a Software Design Engineer in Test and most recently as the STEM Integration Program Manager for TAF (Technology Access Foundation).

In 2015, David received the "Making a Difference in Technology" Award from the University of Michigan Black Alumni. The same year, he was also a finalist for "Geek of the Year" at the Geekwire Awards in Seattle, amongst other notable finalist like Paul Allen. Hack the Central District, or Hack the CD, is a collective of self-determined social innovators that David organized to focus on the creation of sustainable, equitable growth through design, entrepreneurship, and technology in the Central District of Seattle. The question that Hack the CD is focused on answering is "How might we create fertile ground for the African descent community in Seattle to grow with the city’s current tech boom?". Hack the CD won the 2015 "Best Tech Idea" from the Seattle Weekly, and David was also listed as "Seattle’s 51 Most Influential" by Seattle Magazine in 2014.