About Tekwetu

Christine is co-founder and President of Tekwetu, a nonprofit dedicated to making technology education accessible to communities and individuals who face barriers to entering the tech field. Her commitment to this mission stems from a career spent in developer relations and community building: leading the Open Source Programs Office at F5, growing Facebook's open source presence as a Developer Advocate for Parse and Facebook Platform, and currently consulting with Gloo AI on developer relations. She previously headed engineering at Mshift and co-founded Clickmarks, gaining hands-on experience in building products and the teams behind them.

Rae Lewis is a Strategy and Operations Executive whose 20-year career has been built on one enduring belief: that world-class technology leadership should not be reserved for the well-resourced few.

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Rae brings a global perspective and a deep sense of responsibility to every table she sits at. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Emory University, and has served in senior roles at organizations including TransUnion, HERE Technologies, SunTrust Banks, Aeris Communications, and consulting firms such as Deloitte and Booz Allen Hamilton. Her expertise spans SaaS, IoT, financial services, and fintech, with a particular focus on breaking through the operational gridlock that prevents organizations from moving forward.

Rae joins the Tekwetu board as a steward of those same capabilities, bringing enterprise-grade strategy, technology, and operational excellence to non-profits and global communities that would not otherwise have access to them. She is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a Certified Scrum Master, and holds recent certifications in Stanford AI-Driven Leadership and MIT Agentic AI, tools she considers a gift to be shared, not hoarded.

Her volunteerism and community service reflect a lifelong conviction that technology, in the right hands, can amplify purpose and transform lives.

Dr. Valerie Odero-Marah is a Full Professor of Biology at Morgan State University and an internationally recognized cancer researcher dedicated to advancing health equity and improving outcomes for underserved communities. Her research focuses on understanding the biological and social factors that contribute to cancer disparities, particularly among African, Caribbean, and African American populations.

Throughout her career, Dr. Odero-Marah has combined scientific excellence with a passion for community engagement, mentoring, and global collaboration. She has led and contributed to numerous federally funded research initiatives and has played key leadership roles in programs designed to strengthen research capacity and increase diversity within the biomedical workforce.

As a 2025–2026 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award recipient in Kenya, Dr. Odero-Marah expanded partnerships across Africa while studying how social determinants of health influence cancer outcomes. She currently serves as Co-Lead of the Prostate Cancer Working Group within the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium, fostering collaborative efforts to reduce cancer disparities across the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean.

As a Board Member of Tekwetu, Dr. Odero-Marah brings expertise in health disparities research, global health partnerships, strategic planning, and mentorship. She is committed to supporting Tekwetu's mission of empowering communities through education, innovation, health advocacy, and sustainable development initiatives that improve quality of life for vulnerable populations worldwide.