Raechel Canipe founded Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship in late 2022 with her own finances as a one-woman team. Just over one year later, the organization has reached across Florida, adding thousands of members and opening chapters in several major Florida cities — and, for the first time, it has added a board of directors.
Canipe founded Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship to provide resources and a community to promote women’s economic empowerment. The Tampa-founded organization has selected 13 women from across industries to help manage and chair the organization in the coming year.
“This is an entirely new level of generosity and commitment to the mission,” Canipe said. “The amazing women who are joining this inaugural board are really giving of their time, talent and treasure to further the vision that we have and this mission that we’re on together.”
Canipe will chair the board of directors, while Molly Levinson-Kroeber will join her as vice chair. Levinson-Kroeber is the director of operations at Tampa-based startup Cope Notes and holds a board seat at Berlin-based startup Mello. Other appointments include leaders from various industries nationwide.
- Chair — Raechel Canipe, CEO and founder; vice president at RevStar
- Vice chair — Molly Levinson-Kroeber, director of operations Cope Notes and board member of Mello
- General counsel — Vanessa Ferguson, attorney at Ferguson Legal PLLC
- Treasurer — Lisa Marteney, manager of risk advisory services at Centri Business Consulting
- Secretary — Denise Acosta Musselwhite, leadership positions at Shore Coaching, Tech & Thrive and Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools
- Supplier diversity chair — Andrea Knight, subcontracts manager at Airbus US Space & Defense Inc.
- Advocacy and intersectionality chair — Ana Irving, CEO of Engenium
- Events chair — Jojo Kalita, vice president at 4th Down Solutions
- Marketing co-chair — Jessica Charles, media specialist at Elevated Exposure Worldwide
- Marketing co-chair — Justine D’Addio, Hyde Park PR
- Program and curriculum chair — Jessica Sudler, director of operations at Rogue Mobile
- Program and curriculum observer — Rachel Thomas, youth entrepreneur Milena International Inc.
- Fundraising and sponsorship co-chair — Cat Suplicy, founder and CEO of RavenOps
- Fundraising and sponsorship co-chair — Ashley Williams, director of partnerships at Visionary Rising Agency and creative director at Lionsroam
“This leadership team is going to create the energy, the resources and the momentum for us to put more seats at that table in the long run,” Canipe said. “So this is really an exciting, significant and humbling moment for me that I have been working toward.”
The new board will help the organization meet its goals, like expanding to new regions and formalizing the sponsorship process for funding the company, Canipe said. It will accept cash sponsorships and contributions for the first time this year.
Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship has chapters in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale. It plans to expand to Jacksonville this month. It’s also recruiting college students for a chapter at the University of South Florida, according to a release.
Apart from the organization, Canipe is the vice president of marketing and sales at Tampa-based software firm RevStar. She served in various roles for Synapse Florida from 2020 to May 2023, including the director of operations.
