On February 7th, Haitian-American Councilman of North Miami, Alix Desulme, joined forces with celebrated, black woman CEO, Pandwe Gibson of Miami-based EcoTech Visions. The duo presented at Gibson’s EcoTech Visions Digital Citizen Bootcamp, which is currently running from January 7 – March 11 in Miami.
The bootcamp is a free, comprehensive 8-week intensive course on the practical use of a wide range of web-based tools and applications necessary for the digital economy. The mission of the program is to close the digital divide, bridging the gap between the way people of different socioeconomic statuses access and use information technology and communication in their daily lives. The course will equip local participants with the skills needed to make use of technology within their communities.
Students who have enrolled in the program represent a population that has been overlooked and disconnected from the digital economy. Many of the participants hail from a Jamaican, Haitian, Black American or Bahamian background, with 70% between the ages of 21 and 35.
While Gibson imparted on the group the benefits of learning coding and its importance for the community’s economic development, Desulme explained why the city believes coding is the language of the future.
“My colleagues and I on the North Miami City Council are committed to supporting workforce development initiatives,” he shared. “This is why we partnered with EcoTech Visions Foundation to provide free coding courses for our residents… our residents are learning fundamental skills such as computer programming and digital marketing. It is my hope that programs like these will provide high paying jobs for our residents in one of the fastest growing industries in the country.”
Councilman Desulme was elected to the North Miami City Council representing District 4 in 2015. In 2016-2017 he became the youngest Councilman to serve as Vice Mayor for the city of North Miami. Councilman Desulme was first elected to office in 2009, in a city-wide election, making history as the first Black City Clerk of the City of North Miami. He also held the distinction of the youngest and first Haitian-American elected City Clerk in the United States.
Gibson, the organizer of the bootcamp, is a graduate of MIT, Harvard and CGU Peter Drucker School of Management, and holds an MBA, MA and PhD. She founded EcoTech Visions to support spacetech, bluetech, big data, greentech, farmtech, Blockchain, saas, and consumer product startups. In 2018, Gibson led the EcoTech Visions team in successfully completing the Mergelane Fundinator in Boulder, Colorado and launched a $5 million seed round. The company’s signature “Farmers in the Gardens” program opened a second facility, giving EcoTech Visions a total of 52,000 square foot of space in Miami, housing 26 startups. The company plans to open five new facilities in Southeast and Midwestern America by 2020.
This is just one of powerful African American/Caribbean American duos slated for the EcoTech Visions Digital Citizen Bootcamp. The program aims inspire and equip its audience of participants with the tools needed to themselves launch various successful careers and projects, despite the prevailing obstacles that minority populations face.
