Linda Calhoun

Linda Calhoun is the Founder and CEO of Careergirls.org, a free, noncommercial, online platform that showcases video clips of diverse women role models sharing career and educational advice to inspire young girls to expand their horizons, improve their academic performance, and dream big about their futures. Her home base is San Francisco, but she has traveled around the United States interviewing dynamic and accomplished women for her site. Linda has filmed over 400 role models from Houston, Chicago, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, St. Louis, New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Silicon Valley Detroit, Atlanta, and Los Angeles – from ballerinas to astronauts to federal judges. She began her professional life as a public relations assistant. She went on to plan fine-art events for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, develop public databases and policies for the state government of Connecticut, and work as a consultant in foreign affairs for The World Bank. The idea for Career Girls was born after Linda started working as a database consultant for international development projects for USAID and the World Bank. She has several years of experience leading teams in the design of databases to support GIS for public agencies in Kansas, Connecticut, and the Kyrgyz Republic. She found this work rewarding on many levels and wanted girls coming up behind her to know about exciting careers in tech and beyond. Linda has traveled around the world, visiting all seven continents by her fortieth birthday, and has lived in the Kyrgyz Republic and France. In 1994, she was honored to be a member of the United Nations Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA) as an election monitor in the KwaZulu Natal Province. In addition to earning her Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication at Boston University, she also received a certificate in International Marketing from the American University of Paris.