#lab lunch

Who we met: Rebecca Miller-Webster, VP of engineering at Polymathic.

What she does: Apart from her work at Polymathic, Rebecca is the founder of WriteSpeakCode, a group that works to increase the visibility and leadership of women who (you guess it!) write, speak, and code. Established in 2013, W/S/C holds workshops, events and meetups across the country, and the team is currently planning in conference for women in tech in 2016. She previously worked at a non-profit consulting firm using .NET and Java and worked in investment banking and start-ups for a while before joining Polymathic.

Why she does it: "I want people to realize they can use coding in broad ways to do awesome stuff with the things they're passionate about."

Who we met: Darryl Holliday, co-founder of the Illustrated Press, former Logan Square reporter for DNAInfo Chicago, subject of this Chicago Reader profile, and instigator of a cool new project to develop young journalistic talent in Chicago.

What he does: Darryl worked at the Invisible Institute on police misconduct data and he’s a co-founder of City Bureau, a “neighborhood newsroom and journalism training lab aimed at regenerating civic media in Chicago’s historically disenfranchised and underreported 'hoods.” Chicago magazine  called him one of “Chicago’s pioneers of comics journalism” for the work he’s done as part of the Illustrated Press.

Why he does it: “Journalism is in spot where it needs innovation to survive. Entrepreneurial spirit is becoming a required thing to create new ways of storytelling to reach audiences who are disenfranchised and left out of conversation.”