Alexandra Clare (she/her)

CEO and Co-founder, Re:Coded

Transforming Conflict-Affected Youth into Tech Leaders

In 2014, Alexandra Clare was traveling to Northern Iraq when ISIS insurgents wrested control of the city, setting off a crisis that displaced over a half-million people. Whereas some would see despair and hopelessness, Clare saw the chance to create a pathway to the digital economy for disenfranchised youth. “One of the key reasons why youth employment is so high across the region is because traditional education fails to prepare them for the demands of the labor market,” she says. The problem, compounded by the threat of terrorism, was one Clare was determined to solve by changing the education experience for young adults in the Middle East.

Her answer was Re:Coded, a nonprofit Clare co-founded with the backing of the NYU SPS Center for Global Affairs and mentorship of NYU Professor and Director of the Governance Lab Beth Simone Noveck. Using a blend of immersive courses, mentorship, and career support services, the organization has equipped over 600 youth in Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, and Yemen—many who are refugees—with the skills to pursue careers in software development and UX design. Through their Educators for Change fellowship, a program that targets one million youth over the next five years, Re:Coded is also enacting systemic change in the region’s university community. “We wanted to break the cycle of dependency that’s prevalent in humanitarian development sectors,” says Clare, “and give people the skills to teach themselves anything, progress in their careers, and access this amazing community for support and guidance.”

That winning model has transformed Re:Coded into the largest digital upskilling initiative for underserved youth in the Middle East. The organization has placed over 90 percent of its fellows in paid employment. It opened Re:Coded House, the first co-working space in Northern Iraq, and Re:Coded Labs, a digital agency that recruits top graduates to work for clients across the globe. To expand its reach beyond immersive courses, it has trained 5,000 people via free learning programs and events. And the nonprofit is an avid champion of gender diversity in tech: Nearly 50 percent of Re:Coded fellows are women.

Clare hopes these numbers prove that people who’ve been affected by conflict can be assets to their economies and communities. She points to one example: a Syrian refugee and Re:Coded alumna who’s now one of the only machine learning engineers at a large telecom company in Turkey. “She’s providing for her family but also changing what it’s like to be a Syrian woman in tech.” Re:Coded plans to replicate those stories by expanding into Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine and training millions of students over the next decade. “It’s incredible—these individuals are given the opportunity to change their lives,” says Clare. “They take every tool in the toolbox and run with it to achieve extraordinary success.”