Carolyn Finch is the Founder and current Executive Director of Charleston Women in Tech (CWIT). Founded in May 2014, CWIT has grown to over 1700 members and focuses on supporting, connecting, and developing women of all ages for careers in tech. Finch has developed an annual mentorship program connecting over 90 women within the industry and has partnered with local companies to host quarterly networking and education events.

In 2016, CWIT launched CodeON, Coding in our Neighborhoods, a program to provide software education and resources to children in local Charleston neighborhoods. To date, this program has taught approximately 170 students, who have written over 10,000 lines of code.

In the spring of 2015, Finch was invited to speak at the White House, on behalf of CWIT and addressed the need for community collision and support between the public sector and the tech industry.

Finch is also the Co-Founder and CEO of PowerHouse, a training development and placement shop that aids women in honing their software development, leadership, and business skills and helps to place them in local tech companies. The focus is to grow diverse dev teams for tech companies, with a mission of recruiting, training, and retaining more women into the talent pipeline.

Previously, Finch was the Business Development Manager in the City of Charleston’s Business Development Office, working in conjunction with the Charleston Digital Corridor. In this capacity, Finch expanded the CODEcamp software education program increased annual attendance by 300% and authored successful grant applications; including the Office of Innovation Challenge Grant which awarded $247,000 for CODEcamp through the South Carolina Dept. of Commerce.

Finch holds a Juris Doctor from the University of New Hampshire School of Law and is a double major (Communications Studies and History) from the University of California, Los Angeles.