By Carla Thomas

Julie Wenah was recently appointed to the board of the FCC, Federal Communications Commission.

The associate general counsel and product lead for Civil Rights with Meta, formerly Facebook, is an attorney for Meta with seven years of technology experience focused on anti-discrimination efforts and integrating product remediations and product mitigations as technical solutions.

As a representative of the trade association Encompass, she advocates for laws and policies promoting competition, innovation, and economic development.

“I am honored to serve on the FCC and in this capacity and I think of my late parents who emigrated from a small village in Nigeria with no access to broadband and bandwidth,” she said.

Wenah explained that her parents’ village was reminiscent of the rural communities she advocated for during her time with the federal government for a decade, where she led a manufacturing agenda in rural  communities across the United States.

Wenah boasts a resume that includes stints with the Obama Administration, Airbnb, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Through the Tahirih Justice Center Advisory Council, she is dedicated to supporting human trafficking survivors.

As a board director for Women In Product, she equips women in product management careers with equitable opportunities to thrive and shape the industry. Role by role, Wenah has used her gifts to change the world and is unstoppable.

Last year, she initiated Project Height, a partnership that provided nearly 30 college students with scholarships of $10,000 each and an invitation to participate in Meta-sponsored programming designed to further explore technology through a civil rights lens in the areas of data science, product management, and inclusive design and user experience.

The scholarship is named after the late Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, who served as the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) for more than 40 years. The funding is the joint initiative of NCNW, the Dorothy Irene Height Education Foundation (DIHEF), and Meta.

Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation President Alexis Herman said the scholarships awarded “represent an investment in their ongoing education, and these scholars represent a collective investment for increased innovation and a more hopeful future of our world.”

“It was thrilling to partner with the Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation and the National Council of Negro Women to announce the Project Height Scholarship award recipients,” said Wenah. “Our hope is that our joint commitment to investing in the next generation of leaders committed to the intersection of civil rights and technology will spark the minds that build a more inclusive and equitable society.”

Wenah says Dr. Height has always been a source of inspiration to her. “Dr. Height lived her life for the betterment of others,” said Wenah. “She stood in the face of racism and unfairness fearlessly and tirelessly, and we stand on her shoulders,” said Wenah.

Wenah’s fight for equity and justice to offset racism, discrimination, and marginalism continues with her work on the board of the Digital Civil Rights Coalition. In this role she and her team seek to transform regulations and advance an inclusive digital technology ecosystem. “With law as a vehicle, we hope to transform the technology ecosystem at its core and equalize outcomes in the future that everyone deserves.”

When Wenah is not on the front lines in court fighting for an expanded playing field for the underserved or overlooked, she leads a growing collective through the Album and the Mixtape, her way of giving a voice to passionate creatives looking for an outlet to share their fire.

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