Cyd Harrell

Cyd Harrell’s career spans more than 25 years in the technology industry, with stints at Aldus, Charles Schwab Electronic Brokerage, and as VP of Research Practice at Bolt | Peters (acquired by Facebook in 2012).

Since 2012, Cyd has focused her career on public interest tech working with the Center for Civic Design, where she led research for Field Guides 7, Designing election department websites, and Code for America, where she headed User Experience and then Product. Cyd joined the federal government’s 18F in 2016 and served as a Strategy Lead and then as 18F’s first Chief of Staff.

For the past 4 years, she consulted as Service Design Lead with the Judicial Council of California, helping improve the UX of the civil justice system.

She is the author of the 2020 book A Civic Technologist’s Practice Guide, an onboarding guide and survival manual for tech people joining public sector work.

Cyd has lived in San Francisco since 1994. She was a co-founder of San Francisco Women on the Web and now serves on the board of Technologists for the Public Good.