Startups

Meet the winners from the 3rd annual Rad Awards

We spotted some familiar names at the ceremony that honors Philly women (and one rad dude).

The Rad Girl of the Year is Sharron Cooks, Chair of The Mayor’s Commission on LGBT Affairs. (Courtesy photo)

Women startup founders, digital education activists and other outstanding figures of the tech, business and culture spaces went home last night with the tech community’s recognition of their work.

The 3rd Annual Rad Awards (part of Philly Tech Week 2017 presented by Comcast) got off to a chill start with the habitual drinks and schmoozing at the Stratus rooftop. The party atmosphere gave way to a swift ceremony that illustrated just how many rad women populate the city’s different ecosystems.

This year, the awards — an initiative of online platform Rad-Girls.com which was founded by Leah Kauffman, the head of marketing and communications at 50 on Red’s parent company, Red Spark  opened up the nomination process to the interwebs. Three hundred nominations poured in for the 13 categories.

Here are this year’s winners:

Nonprofit of the Year

Entrepreneur of the Year

Technologist of the Year

Scientist of the Year

Artist of the Year

Educator of the Year

Product of the Year

Connector of the Year

Innovator of the Year

Storyteller of the Year

  • Trenae Nuri, from WHYY’s Radio Times

Activist of the Year

  • Sara Lomax-Reese, president of WURD Radio

Rad Guy of the Year

Rad Girl of the Year

  • Sharron Cooks, Chair of The Mayor’s Commission on LGBT Affairs

“Every year we do this event it’s a testament to all the incredible women across the gender spectrum in our city doing incredible things and creating meaningful platforms for women,” Kauffman told Technical.ly. “Taking four hours out of the year to honor that is the least we can do. It’s certainly the best four hours of my year.”

Companies: Philly Startup Leaders / TechGirlz

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