Our Mission

Girl Develop It is an international organization, certified by the Board of Education, that exists to provide affordable and accessible programs to women who want to learn software development through mentorship and hands-on instruction.

Our Vision

Our vision is to create a network of empowered women who feel confident in their abilities to code and build beautiful web and mobile applications. By teaching women around the world from diverse backgrounds to learn software development, we can help women improve their careers and confidence in their everyday lives.

Our Values

We are committed to making sure women of all ages, races, education levels, income, and upbringing can build confidence in their skill set to develop web and mobile applications. Our goal is to provide powerful hands-on programs to women seeking professional help in software development and create basic to advanced web and mobile applications

Your Amazing Support

Thank you for supporting Girl Develop It on our mission to make software development easy, affordable and accessible to all women. Your contribution helps us expand our mission to create great programs and opportunities for women learning to code. We are in the final stages of completing our 501(c)(3) status through the Internal Revenue Service.

Our Team

Sara Chipps - Co-Founder

Goddess of technology or prolific business owner? Sara Chipps shows there is more to being a nerd and is making waves leading the mission Girl Develop It. She started Girl Develop It in 2010 to inspire more females to see being a developer is fun and glamorous. As her concept expanded, Sara decided to build her network of female developers around the country, and eventually the globe. With her team of expert developers and educators, her mission to teach women around the world the fundamentals of software development and to become empowered is still growing.

While leading the charge of Girl Develop It, and leading the technology team as CTO of The Levo League Sara makes time for blogging at SaraJChipps.com and enjoys speaking to and meeting with diverse groups from the Girl Scouts to straight up code junkies. Sara's favorite language is JavaScript, and she thinks coffee is for drinking not coding.

Vanessa Hurst - Co-Founder

Vanessa believes every person should be empowered to use technology to make the world a better place. She started Girl Develop It to provide judgment-free learning opportunities with a focus on results, and to support women teaching and learning from one another. She’s a lifetime Girl Scout, a teacher, and a passionate supporter of open source software.

Vanessa is currently building CodeMontage to help people improve their software skills while improving the world. She also founded and organizes Developers for Good to connect technologists who want to use their skills to make an impact with organizations that need help. Previously, Vanessa led the database and analytics efforts at Paperless Post.

Erin M. Kidwell - Director of Operations

Erin recognizes the need for more talent in the software industry and wants to encourage women to learn technical skills in a supportive and collaborative environment. She's spent years in treasury and enterprise software and as an independent consultant training businesses on back-end programming and business development. She’s dedicated to Girl Develop It's vision to teach women from diverse backgrounds to learn software development, thereby improving their careers and confidence in their everyday lives. Of note, Erin is also the Chapter Leader of the GDI Cincinnati chapter.

Erin is the powerhouse behind Girl Develop It's growth and expansion, leading the charge to extend GDI's reach through the globe and empower women in all walks of life. She is also developing powerful partnerships with educators and supporters throughout the globe to provide even support to Girl Develop It students, teachers and leaders.