Ethan Whitehill: Hi everyone. I’m Ethan Whitehill, president and CCO of Crux, the Un-agency. Welcome to episode number 22 of To the Point. We produce this monthly podcast to bring you thought-provoking conversations that get to the crux of it and to help entrepreneurial brands fuel growth. Today’s guest is Tammy Buckner. Tammy founded a minority, woman-owned technology and DevOps solutions company, and she is the founder and CEO of WeCode KC. Since 2019, she has led the organization to focus on mentoring and training marginalized youth in technology, bringing greater tech awareness and opportunities to Black communities. A recent graduate of the executive MBA program at Rockhurst University, Tammy has been appointed to serve on the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Computer Science Task Force to help shape the future of a statewide computer science education program. Her accolades include the 2023 Y STEM Champion Award, 2023 Women Achievement Award, Top Community Builder to Watch in KC and Top 20 To Know In Nonprofit Leadership by the Kansas City Business Journal. Plus, under her leadership, WeCode KC received the 2023 Excellence in Impact Award by Nonprofit Connect. Those are awesome accolades. Tammy, welcome to the show, and we are just absolutely thrilled to have you today. 

Tammy Buckner: Thank you so much. I appreciate this opportunity. Ethan. 

Ethan Whitehill: So out of the gate, I want to ask you this, for those who don’t know. What is WeCode KC, and what is your organization’s mission? 

Tammy Buckner: So WeCode KC is an organization specifically to focus on Black technology from marginalized communities. We teach kids, teens and youth the latest technology so that they can get jobs directly out of high school, go directly into entrepreneurship or go directly into college. 

Ethan Whitehill: So how exactly does that work? What does that program look like? 

Tammy Buckner: Yeah, so how it works [is] we have a couple different programs. We have our baseline program. That’s where we started our Saturday program. That is a program we start with kids ages 7 years old and go up to 17 years old. It is a free program for the participants. They come in every single Saturday. Now, when we started, it was only the first and third Saturday because of the demand. It’s every single Saturday now from 10 in the morning to 12 o’clock in the afternoon. Our kids come in and they learn everything from scratch, which is the very basics of computer design, Roblox Studio. And if you’ve heard anything about game development, Roblox Studio is a huge one. We also transition into the more text-based technology such as JavaScript, Python, HTML and CSS. Those classes are free. These kids come in, they learn these specific skillsets and they are assessed on the programming, as they’re continuous, so that they can move to the next level. 

Ethan Whitehill: And I know it’s not always just what’s happening on the screen. They’re also connecting with drones and doing other really cool things with the technology. 

Tammy Buckner: Absolutely. When they’re learning these technologies, why not implement it? And now they can put those skills into hardware, like you said, drones and of course my favorite, Raspberry Pi. 

Ethan Whitehill: In addition to the curriculum you provide, WeCode also partners with businesses to provide real-world learning experiences for students. What do these partnerships look like, and why is this type of hands-on experience so important for them? 

Tammy Buckner: We partner with the different organizations so that our kids can learn those skills that they need to go directly into the workforce. So what that looks like [is] we go into an organization or an employer and ask them, what are the skill sets you’re looking for? We want to make sure that our curriculum aligns exactly with what they’re looking for. So we teach these kids those skillsets. We also assist them with getting internships from those employers. And on top of the employers investing in the program, they’re guest speakers; they’re watching the kids with their different projects [and] giving them some feedback. And it also allows them to prepare for their portfolio. So when they walk out of WeCode, they have the experience on top of also those skillsets. 

Ethan Whitehill: That’s fantastic. And you’re also a fierce advocate for developing an inclusive and equitable technology industry. So you’re really bridging a gap. So connecting these students with those employers is really addressing a really critical need here in KC’s urban core. 

Tammy Buckner: Thank you. So it’s really not about just the technology or the technical knowledge; it’s about the power to innovate. It’s about creating something that impacts the world. So when I started in technology years ago, my skillset, because I didn’t see people that looked like me, I wanted to figure out: How do I change that? I wanted to be able to bridge that gap. As we started continuing to build technology and making sure that we are the innovators of the next big technology, we [want to] continue to build on that pathway. 

Ethan Whitehill: I have to imagine, too, you’re bringing a new perspective and new experiences to that world. And I’m sure your students are seeing problems that others maybe are missing because they haven’t been addressed by that population.  

Tammy Buckner: Yes. You think about the Kansas City area right now, less than 8% of technologists are Black right now. I feel that that’s a huge problem. Technology can only be as innovative as the people that are at the table creating the technology. We have to diversify tech. And this is a huge opportunity where WeCode can bridge that gap and close that digital divide by providing the talent that our employers need today, right now, in getting those kids in these spaces. 

Ethan Whitehill: As a Black female founder in STEM, you are what many refer to as a trailblazer. And most recently you became the inaugural winner of KC Current’s Blue KC Gamechanger. So, congrats! What inspired you to dedicate yourself to this work? 

Tammy Buckner: What inspired me to dedicate myself to this work? It’s not about me; it’s not about just my success in technology. It’s about being the bridge to the underrepresented communities, to the world of technology. I knew that technology is a lucrative career path, and I love to shop! <laugh> That’s why one of the main reasons it’s so important that technology is used to create that space. It’s getting people out of poverty. It’s allowing people to live the lifestyle that they want to live [and] to create investible wage jobs, not just passing by or living check to check. Technology is an industry that’s one of the fastest-growing industries. Why not be a part of it? 

Ethan Whitehill: And there’s a clear pathway that you’re setting there. It’s not like you’re not taking a giant risk doing it because you know that this is something that you can accomplish and achieve and then move into a career. 

Tammy Buckner: Absolutely. Ethan, I was a single mother, and technology was the industry that I realized allowed me to bring up my family. I started learning about all these little wires and all of that intrigued me and got me into computer science. So now I get the opportunity to share that with other people. I’m not a gatekeeper, so I want to expand that to others to show them: You absolutely can. And look, someone who looks just like you has done it. And so now I get that opportunity to bridge that gap. 

Ethan Whitehill: So just off the top of your head and thinking about those opportunities, from what I understand, there’s thousands of jobs available in technology. What does that need look like? 

Tammy Buckner: Right now, there’s over 4,000 tech jobs right here in Kansas City. And when I say tech jobs, people think it’s just computer science, or it’s just a software developer and you’re sitting behind your computer and you’re just coding. It’s not just coding. You’ve got different areas such as project management, data analytics, graphics design, user experience. There are so many opportunities, and I want people to understand that the opportunity right now is wide open. Think about AI and all of the jobs that it’s bringing. I want people to understand AI is not taking away jobs. It’s bringing more jobs, and it’s more opportunity for you to get involved and make great money in a great career path. 

Ethan Whitehill: In the last podcast we recorded, we were just talking about this new title of Prompt Engineer. That’s a fascinating opportunity for a lot of young people as they get into this. 

Tammy Buckner: And we are talking about that with our students. We’re showing them how to go into Gemini and how to go into Perplexity and how to actually ask the correct questions so that you can get the correct answers. It’s not about just saying one or two things. You can be very, very detailed and utilize AI to your benefit. It is helping me right now, and it takes me normally an hour to two hours to write a very thought-provoking email! 

Ethan Whitehill: I can identify with that. 

Tammy Buckner: Right. And now I can use AI to assist me with that. So prompt engineering and prompting is going to be a huge space for people if you just sit down and learn it. It’s available. The opportunities are endless. 

Ethan Whitehill: To switch gears a little bit, I talked about an honor that you received from the KC Current. I’m going to talk about another sports team now because you recently had a very cool opportunity with the Kansas City Royals. Tell our listeners a bit about that, and what’s on the horizon there with WeCode? 

Tammy Buckner: Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. So Kansas City Royals reached out to UMKC and KC STEM Alliance, and they wanted a robotics team to assist with building a robot that would throw out the first pitch. And it was amazing. First of all, it was like, “Oh my God. This is so much fun. This is exciting.” And then it’s like, “Oh, you only have 30 days to do it.” And we’re like, “Oh, OK!” But it was great because our kids are so fascinating. You give them a challenge to do, and they immediately jump on it. They started working in these 3D designs. They figured out what mechanisms that they needed to use, how fast it needed to go to make sure it got over the home plate. And it worked. It was amazing. They called the robot Tyrone. It is so cool. We threw it out on the school day at the K, and it’s just been amazing from there. Our kids are super smart. They use Java as the back end. So they had to, first of all, figure out what they were going to create. Then they built it and then obviously had to code it. So it was so much fun. 

Ethan Whitehill: I bet it did better than most celebrities that throw out those pitches. 

Tammy Buckner: I think it did! It did really good. It was so much fun. 

Ethan Whitehill: So what’s one piece of advice that you’d give those interested in a coding career? 

Tammy Buckner: One piece of advice is just keep learning. I am an adult learner. I learn something new every single day. So I would say just learn. Don’t be afraid of it. Encompass it all because that’s the way the world is going. Every single industry that you’re in, it touches technology in some format. Even if you don’t decide to go into it, you will need to learn something about technology. So just learn. 

Ethan Whitehill: I love that. Well, in the spirit of learning, we’re going to learn something else about Tammy. Here we’re at my secret question, and I have my very low-tech, 20-sided die that I’m going to roll. That’s my algorithm there. I’m going to roll that and figure out what we’re going to ask you. And let’s see here. This is a good one. What’s your favorite question? 

Tammy Buckner: That’s the question. What’s my favorite question? 

Ethan Whitehill: The question is what is your favorite question? 

Tammy Buckner: Wow, that’s a good one. I think my favorite question would probably be, “What’s next for your organization?” 

Ethan Whitehill: Oh, I love that. What’s next for WeCode? 

Tammy Buckner: WeCode is doing some amazing things because we have been looked at as a subject matter expert in technology. We want to assist our school districts, our education system, [and] how to implement technology into any curriculum that they are using. We know our teachers’ main goal is to provide the basics of education. So, now, how can we help our teachers include technology- or STEM-related activities in their curriculum so that it’s not a heavy lift for them, so that we can provide an easy curriculum that they can use to make sure our students are learning technology? 

Ethan Whitehill: And that’s good for any student learning anything. 

Tammy Buckner: Any student learning anything because they’re going to need this to be successful in the digital world at any point in their life. They need to learn it; they need to grasp it; they need to have a passion for it at some point. And we want to be that organization, the supplemental organization to help our school districts. 

Ethan Whitehill: Well, I so appreciate that mission. It’s so important for our region and our world as we move forward. So thank you for doing that. How can listeners connect with you and learn more about WeCode if I’m a company and I’m interested in internships and things like that? Where do I go? 

Tammy Buckner: You can go to WeCodeKC.org. You can click on our website. There’s so many opportunities to volunteer for. You don’t have to be a technologist or a strategist or anything like that. You just want to assist young people in the community. We need volunteers to assist with checking kids in, need volunteers to just make sure they are hands-on when our instructors are in the room. Sometimes, our kids just need to pay attention, and we need other hands in the room to assist with that. So go to WeCodeKC.org to, number one, volunteer. Number two: donate. This is an amazing program, and I’m not just saying that because I am the founder, but because it is changing lives in our community, our industry, our community, and our employers need this program so that we can continue to build the gap. So please donate. We need your assistance within this program continuing and scaling. And thirdly, share it out. If you don’t have kids that you can’t bring to the program, share it to someone else, your friends, your family, your neighbor. Share it. Bring those kids to WeCodeKC.org. Bring them on Saturday’s program. Also, if there’s any schools that you may be interested in learning more about our program, shoot us an email at learntech@wecodekc.org. 

Ethan Whitehill: Tammy, thank you for joining me today. 

Tammy Buckner: Ethan, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. 

Hosted by Ethan Whitehill

Ethan has made a career out of building agencies and growing brands. He founded the firm Two West in 1997, running it as an independent shop for nearly 20 years before combining his firm with an AdAge Top 100 Agency, where he served as CMO. As an agency founder and entrepreneur, Ethan brings a business owner’s mindset to marketing, working on a host of diverse brands, from packaged goods and professional services to hospitality and healthcare.